"Every city in the Midwest has a half-finished canal in it."
I love canals, so this makes me want to do a tour of the midwest US and its half-finished canals - and a boat tour of the *finished* canals. But I'm in Scotland so... let me do it online.
First up: Indianapolis!
[image from https://mathstodon.xyz/@susankayequinn@wandering.shop/116635972190246192]
(1/n)
In 1836, Indiana's Mammoth Internal Improvement Act authorized eight major canal projects on a $10 million loan.
After the Panic of 1837, the state went broke; by 1841 it could no longer make interest payments, and of the eight projects, none were completed by the state and only two were ever finished - by London creditors who took them over.
The Central Canal was supposed to run roughly 300 miles down the middle of the state. Only about 8 miles around Indianapolis were ever built. That stub still exists: it's the Canal Walk downtown, now a beautiful pedestrian promenade. See the picture!
South of the city you can still find unfinished culverts, locks, and an abandoned aqueduct where work stopped in 1839. Anyone got good pics of those? I like the melancholy charm of such things.
Next: the Clinton-Kalamazoo canal, which was supposed to go all way across Michigan!
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Michigan became a state in 1837 and immediately borrowed $5 million to build canals and other stuff. The Clinton-Kalamazoo Canal was supposed to cross the Lower Peninsula - 216 miles from Lake St. Clair to Lake Michigan - saving ships from the long sail around the mitt.
Construction started in 1838 with great fanfare. But they finished only about 16 miles - Mt. Clemens to Rochester - before the money ran out.
"Bank payments were not being paid, and workers weren’t getting their wages, which led to boozing it up, numerous fights, and stealing supplies. Disgruntled, many of the workers began destroying and ripping up parts of the canal they had constructed."
Work on the canal ground to a halt in 1843. The legislature formally abandoned it in 1895. Reconstructed fragments can be seen today in Clinton Township and Bloomer State Park.
You might never guess this stream running through the woods was part of a colossal, overambitious engineering project - though the suspiciously straight banks are a clue.
Next: some big canals in Ohio that were actually finished!
[image by John Meszaros at Atlas Obscura; for more see https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/clinto-kalamazoo-canal]
(3/n)
Ohio actually completed both of its big canals: the Ohio & Erie (Cleveland to Portsmouth, 1832) and the Miami & Erie (Cincinnati to Toledo, 1845).
In the 1840s, Ohio grew to become the third most prosperous state, thanks in part to these canals. But by the dawn of the Civil War, they were losing business to railroads that could deliver goods cheaper and faster. They fell into disrepair, and after some feeble attempts to revive these canals, people gave up on them.
Cities like Akron, Dayton, Cincinnati, Toledo, and Cleveland have prominent canal remnants. But they're not half-finished: they were finished and then abandoned!
This remnant of the Ohio & Erie canal in downtown Akron has been made into something quite nice, called the Towpath Trail:
https://www.downtownakron.com/go/towpath-trail
Next stop: the Miami & Erie Canal!
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The Miami & Erie Canal was a 274-mile canal that ran from Cincinnati to Toledo, creating a water route between the Ohio River and Lake Erie. Construction began in 1825, and the canal was completed two decades later at a cost of $8 million - a quarter of a billion in today's money!
At its peak, it included 19 aqueducts, three guard locks, 103 canal locks, multiple feeder canals, and a few man-made water reservoirs. Boats up to 80 feet long were towed along the canal by mules, horses and oxen.
Because of competition from railroads, commercial use of the canal declined in the late 1800s, and it was permanently abandoned for commercial use in 1913 after a historic flood in Ohio. Cincinnati's Central Parkway and Dayton's Patterson Boulevard literally pave over filled-in portions of this canal! Only a small fraction survives today.
Here is a lock from the Miami & Erie canal in the aptly named town of Lockington.
Our next and final stop: the Illinois & Michigan Canal!
(5/n)
The Illinois & Michigan Canal is what happens when a nice idea waits 175 years for follow-through.
In 1673, the French-Canadian explorer Louis Joliet stood at the Chicago portage and noted that a modest ditch - really, just a ditch! - could link the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico.
Illinois finally agreed and broke ground on July 4, 1836. But soon it ran into the financial disaster called the Panic of 1837 - so the state nearly went broke while digging a 96-mile trench it had assured everyone would take "a few years."
It took twelve. By the time the first boat chugged through in April 1848, the railroads were already laying track to make the whole enterprise seem quaint. Nonetheless, the canal was wildly profitable for thirty years - long enough to pay off its bonds - before being superseded.
Today much of the canal is a 'linear park' with canoeing and a 62-mile hiking and biking trail. Here is the old lock tender's house near Morris, Illinois.
Will data centers, built for AI, be converted to something equally pleasant when their day has passed? I believe some form of AI is here to stay - but the current version is wildly inefficient compared to the human brain, so if we don't find some other use for them, they may simply fall into ruin.
(6/n, n = 6)
Have you been in Falkirk Wheel?
https://www.scottishcanals.co.uk/visit/canals
@ohmu - I'm here to flee certain phenomena in the US, not for tourism! I just like to live and work in Edinburgh - an incredibly nice city.
But before you blow your top: I do plan to poke around more this summer. I don't want to rent a car, but I can take trains, buses and ferries to a lot of places.
@johncarlosbaez It's not in the Midwest, and it did get finished, but I grew up on the Morris Canal in NJ, and now live about a mile from one end of it (in Jersey City). It really only had about 30–40 good years (1830s–1870s) before the railway put it out of business.
If you're going to the Highlands, be sure to spend some time in Fort William—not only home to Neptune's Staircase, but also the Highlands Museum, which is small but does a good job of telling history.
@ColesStreetPothole - a friend of mine is going to Fort William soon, and will report back!
I will read about the Morris canal now... and Neptune's Staircase, which is a great name!
@johncarlosbaez England's canals were also abandoned, particularly after they were frozen in the hard winter of 1962-3.
But they since been revived by the Canal and River Trust https://canalrivertrust.org.uk so that now there are more boats on the canals than there were in the industrial revolution.
The CRT also does far more for Birmingham (the centre of the network) than Birmingham City Council does.
(I hope that will change now that we have kicked out the arrogant incompetent Labour administration.)
@Paul_Taylor - which party runs the city council there now?
I'm glad the canals are being put to good use. What you wrote reminds of something I heard: more stone tools are being made now than in the Stone Age. Not sure that's true, but I'm glad the art has not been lost.
@jackeric Here is the latest story in the Birmingham Mail about how the new council could be formed, from 19 Greens, 12 LibDems and 7 out of 13 independents:
www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/independents-set-out-vision-better-33984323
The 23 Faragists and 17 Labour have ruled themselves out. I haven't heard definitely about the 16 Tories, but in neighbouring Worcestershire, which has a similar mix, the local Tory leader was expelled from the party by its national leadership for joining a similar coalition.
@Paul_Taylor they were not revived by the Canal and River Trust (CRT) - they manage them now, but they are a relatively recent creation (2012).
I am not an expert on the history, but some more history over at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_British_canal_system#Restoration
There is a *lot* of credit to give volunteer enthusiasts, I see it as a big win for community/volunteer/love... (the CRT does not embody those principles).
@EF ah that seems a key person indeed:
"Tom Rolt was one of the first people in modern Britain to draw attention to the value of our canals as a means of transport and a source of pleasure.
...
In 1946, Tom, along with a group of of enthusiasts inspired by his book Narrow Boat, founded the Inland Waterways Association (IWA) to restore and revitalise canals."
@EF @Paul_Taylor @johncarlosbaez
... Also lots of local/regional initiatives worked on it. I walked past this notice yesterday celebrating the work of the Kennet and Avon canal trust (I live on this canal).
(Apols for no detailed alt text, only on the phone and can't read it here... I read the poster when I was next to it)
@johncarlosbaez Cincinnati didn't even fill in the canal bed but instead built a subway in it - which was never finished!
@dzho @violanders - interesting:
"The Rochester Industrial and Rapid Transit Railway (reporting mark RSB), more commonly known as the Rochester subway, was a light rail/interurban rapid transit line in the city of Rochester, New York that operated from 1927 to 1956. The subway was constructed in the bed of the old Erie Canal, which allowed the route to be grade-separated for its entire length. Two miles (3.2 km) of the route through downtown were constructed in a cut-and-cover tunnel that became Broad Street, and the only underground portion of the subway.
The railroad was designed to reduce interurban traffic on city streets and to facilitate freight interchange between the railroads. The line was operated on a contract basis by New York State Railways from 1927 to 1938, and by the Rochester Transit Corporation (RTC) from 1938 until its closure. Trains ran on the left, because the system included the unidirectional vehicles with doors on the right and all stations had an island platforms.
The last day of passenger service was June 30, 1956. Portions of the right-of-way were used for expressway construction, while the rest was abandoned and filled in over the years. The largest remaining section is a stretch of tunnel under Broad Street from Exchange Street to the intersection of Court Street and South Avenue."
Lichfield & Hatherton Canals Restoration Trust Support the Lichfield and Hatherton Canals Restoration Trust as volunteers restore the Lichfield Canal for community and ecology. Explore our projects, get involved, or donate today.
Alexis Dahl recently did a podcast on this very "canal"...
@johncarlosbaez You can do Parmigiano too, if you know how. You can't call it with the name for legal reasons, but nothing prevents you to learn how to make it.
My question is more about why. Gondolas make sense in Venice for historical reasons, but make very little sense anywhere else.
People from different places came up with different ways of doing things and different styles, which is why travelling around is interesting.
@j_bertolotti - yes, I meant that unlike "parmiagiano reggiano", there's no legal reason you can't make your own "gondola". 'Twas a joke.
Gondolas make sense in the US, too, because everyone knows gondolas and loves the idea of riding in one, but not everyone wants to pay for a trip to Venice. In Las Vegas they have their own copy of Venice - check out the pictures:
https://www.venetianlasvegas.com/resort/attractions/gondola-rides.html
And I've seen fake Venetian canals in a shopping mall in Singapore.
If an old Vegas resident visits Venice for some reason, will they say, "This is not a real Vegas gondola ride?"
The idea of Europe has more pull than Europe can accommodate. Huawei build entire European-themed campus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huawei_Ox_Horn_Campus
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«If an old Vegas resident visits Venice for some reason, will they say, "This is not a real Vegas gondola ride?"»
That reminds me of a short story by O. Henry, where a trip to Venice is misconstrued as a cheap visit to Coney Island.
(2)
I did not see a mention of a canal related to the history of mathematics.
As you probably know, the original inscription has been long lost, but there is a modern sign on the bridge.
@ives @johncarlosbaez @j_bertolotti
That goes along with the motor, then:
tut-tut... putt-putt... tut-tut... putt-putt...
Why WOULDN'T there be a gondola?
@johncarlosbaez Yes! Part of the central canal (at the south end)
Photo taken from around here: https://maps.app.goo.gl/k1DzNGZx8JY8sV3D6
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