T&M Canal Research Paper By The I&M Canal Could you imagine the city of Chicago being an agricultural place, without the huge towers and buildings there today? The I&M Canal made Chicago the city it is today by creating a greater opportunity for trade. How did the I&M Canal affect people before and after it was built? The I&M Canal attracted many immigrants, and improved imports and exports. THE BEGINNING The I&M Canal transformed Chicago. Before the canal was built, Chicago was farmland. Chicago was more agricultural not industrial. The I&M Canal was built between 1836 and 1848.
The I&M Canal was built to transport goods. It provided a direct water link between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River. The l&M Canal is 96 miles long, and operated for 85 years. The canals width at the bottom is twenty-eight feet and at the top it is forty feet. The canal is at least four feet deep. It starts in Bridgeport, and ends in LaSalle county. Towns like Ottawa, Channahon, Lockport, Joliet, Lasalle and others were created along the way. Lockport was the canal headquarters. LOCKS & AQUEDUCTS One of the difficulties encountered when building a canal is getting over hills and rivers.
They did this by creating locks and aqueducts. The I&M Canal has fifteen locks and four aqueducts. Locks were used for moving the canal boat up and down hills. The boat would enter the lock. The lock would then close and fill up with water until it was level with the top of the hill. Then the boat would exit the lock. On the other side of the hill, the boat would enter another lock. This lock would close and empty water out until it was level with the bottom of the hill. It was a complicated, but creative solution to getting a boat over a hill. All of the canals locks are made of Lemont limestone.
The I&M. Canal also had aqueducts. The canal used aqueducts were used for passing over rivers or creeks. An aqueduct is a man-made bridge like channel that passes over a body of water. One of these aqueducts failed from increasing water levels. The aqueduct caused flooding because of all the pressure. “The Illinois Department of Transportation brought sand in to stop the water on Illinois 47 near the bridge”, according to an article in the Morris Herald-News. THE IRISH GRAVEYARD The canal was dug primarily by Irish immigrants who migrated to Illinois looking for jobs.
When the Irish came, they were thought to be poor and dirty. They were hired to build the canal. Building the canal was an extremely hard job, because it was dug by hand. They also used black powder, which was very dangerous and unpredictable. They would find a natural crack in a rock, pack it with black powder, and run like crazy. They used black powder and dug by hand, because the steam shovel and dynamite were not yet in use. The I&M Canal was referred to as, “The Irish Graveyard”, because two out of three Irish workers died during the building of the canal from malaria, heatstroke and the use of black powder.
The workers were affected by heat strokes from temperatures up to 110 for two weeks. According to Woodruff, “To dig a canal you need four things: a pick, a shovel, a wheelbarrow, and an Irishman”. The Irish wound up building their own churches and cemeteries here. They were only paid about a dollar a day for sixteen hours of work, which was mostly paid in the form of an IOU. If a worker took a fivedollar IOU to the store they might get two dollars for it. Also, the rent houses they had were very low quality.
THE USE OF THE CANAL The canal took twelve years to complete. Upon the completion of the canal in 1848, farmers and manufacturers were able to move their goods to and from the cities. Some of the goods they transported were grain, lumber, salt, oranges, molasses, tobacco, sugar, corn, oats, stone, coal, and pork. Trade became much faster. It shifted trade from St. Louis to Chicago. As a result, the population increased from 4,000 people to 20,000 people in twelve years, after a couple of more years the population grew to 112,172 people.
The I&M Canal helped make Chicago one of the biggest cities in the world and towns sprang up along the canal’s banks. This was an exciting time, because a project this big was never taken on in Illinois and people were eager to see it. The canal brought jobs to Illinois, through the workers who managed the shipping and locks on the canal. They also employed “mule boys” to care for the horses and mules used to tow the canal boats. There were stables every ten to twenty miles. People were pulled by horses and cargo was towed by mules.
THE DECLINE OF THE CANAL In 1854, shortly after the competition of the canal the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad opened for service, connecting Chicago with the Mississippi River. Passenger traffic on the canal rapidly disappeared, because the railroad was faster. However, the canal was still used for the transportation of goods and bringing in money from tolls. The I&M Canal began to decline because of other forms of transportation. The railroads and highway systems were faster. The state stopped investing in the maintenance of the canal and by the early 1900’s commercial use of the canal had ended.
THE CANAL TODAY The I&M Canal is no longer in operation. The Illinois and Michigan Canal is part of the I&M Canal National Heritage Corridor and today, is used for recreation. The National Heritage Corridor encouraged trails and historic preservations. Along the banks of the canal there are many state parks, historical sites that have been restored, and beautiful views of rolling hills, bluffs, and a variety of wildlife. You can visit and follow the I&M Canal State Trail starting from Rockdale on the old towpath to LaSalle.
State parks along the route offer hiking, biking, snowmobiling, camping, picnicking, fishing, boating & historical sites. When visiting the trails and historical sites it is nice to be able to wonder what it was like when it was in operation. COUNTERCLAIM The I&M Canal was a great part to Illinois history, but it also affected Illinois in some bad ways. One way was the illnesses spreading around the city, because of contaminated water. In 1885 outbreaks of typhoid, cholera and dysentery and 12% of Chicago residents died. The I&M Canal was a very expensive project. The total cost of the entire canal was 6. million dollars. It was partially paid for by grants, donations, tolls, and canal land sales.
CONCLUSION The l&M Canal began Chicago’s popularity and growth. It created the opportunity to bring more commerce into Illinois. The I&M Canal was very good for the Illinois community. But it did not just help Chicago, it helped other cities in Illinois and and states across the country. The l&M Canal also attracted many workers and visitors from everywhere around the world. Even though the I&M Canal is no longer in use today, we can still enjoy and appreciate the canal era and what it brought to our state.
