On the day that our Map-Making assignment was due, we had a guest lecture from Michael T. Wheeler of Syracuse University, titled Topography, Cities and Transportation, U.S. Transportation Geography 1790-1860. While this talk focused on a lot of subjects, including development of the railroad trunk lines, the inability to create a canal to Lake Champlain, and the problems of railroads and canals in Massachusetts, there were several points about the construction of the Erie Canal that would have affected my thinking of the map I was creating had I been aware of them at the time. These center around whether the transportation network of New York state was pre-determined by its topography, as I argued in several of the earlier posts here, or if humans had a greater influence on its pattern.
- The settlements in the West of the state were pre-existing sites of large Native American populations, the Six Nations. The trade routes naturally followed a path the enabled New Yorkers to maximize trade relations with this population. This area is swampy, and difficult to settle initially.
- An easier, natural route for the Erie Canal would have been a canal through Lake Oswego and a smaller canal at Niagara Falls. However, this route would have made it easier for people in Western New York to ship their goods to Montreal, rather than New York City. The path of the Erie Canal ensures that the city is the most efficient destination for goods.
- Competition between Albany and Troy to create a railroad system to reach Schenectady that would bypass boat queues on the initial portion of the canal which had the most locks caused an overbuild transportation network in the East of the state. Many routes were constructed that were not the most efficient path for goods, but benefited traders along the route who paid for its construction. This pattern mirrors the growth of the turnpikes described in the cited material for my map.
While the terrain of the state had some effect on the paths used for trade, probably the greatest factors in creating the patterns shown on the map were politics and profit.