On Wed, Mar 6, 2013 at 10:30 AM, Bob Whitmire <bwhitmire@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>wrote:
> Nice historical documentation. I wonder how much longer it will be before
> almost no one knows what this stuff was. Or what a canal was, for that
> matter?
>
> --Bob
>
> >
> > *http://zone-10.com/tope2/main.php?g2_itemId=2912*
>
>
Thanks. There are still canals, but now they're big industrial waterways
that don't have the charm of the older, smaller, dug-by-hand ones.
The thing that fascinates me about the I&M is that it's close by, and being
a Chicago native, I learned just how important the I&M was to the
development of Chicago from a trading post into a major center of
commerce. And saddened that almost nobody understands that. The railroads
get all of the glory, but the I&M was there before they were and actually
made it feasible for the railroads to come into Chicago.
The history should be remembered, if for no other reason than as a tribute
to the laborers that dug 96 miles of canal mostly by hand (with some help
from mules). The mostly Irish workforce labored under often terrible
conditions and occasional violence between competing labor teams, and many
of them died digging the canal.
What grabbed my attention first was a photograph of Locks 9 & 10 where
there are these huge stone structures just standing in what amounts to a
grassy corridor. That was when I did some research and found out that
there used to be six feet of water running through that area....
--
Paul Braun
Music Junkie
"Music washes from the soul the dust of everyday life." -- Harlan Howard
--
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