In the 1800s canals made economic sense. There were even multiple plans to dig a canal across southern Michigan from Lake Erie to Lake Michigan.
Indeed!
George Washington invested in canals to take the produce of the Northwest Territories to Virginia ports. But the establishment slave-holders didn’t see any need for canals since it wouldn’t benefit them so nothing came of it.
Would have never been a civil war if they had. The South would have been able to compete economically.
Socialism ruins everything.
I’m less than 5 minutes from the Ohio and Erie Canal.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio_and_Erie_Canal.