By the middle of this administration the popularity of internal
improvement appropriations seemed irresistible, although southern
states raised their voices against it and complained bitterly that
they were neglected. The example of the Erie Canal, which was open
by 1825, seemed to furnish proof of the success that awaited state
canal construction. States were learning that English capital was
ready for investment in such undertakings and that Congress could
donate lands and subscribe for stock.
By acts of 1825 and 1826, Pennsylvania initiated its extensive state
system of roads and canals to reach the Ohio, the central part of
New York, and the Great Lakes. [Footnote: Hulbert, Historic
Highways, XIII., chap, iv.; Worthington, Finances of Pennsylvania,
22.] The trunk line of this system united Philadelphia with
Pittsburgh by a horse railway to Columbia on the Susquehanna, thence
by a canal along that river and its tributary, the Juniata, to
Hollidaysburg, where stationary engines carried the freight over a
series of inclined planes across the thirty-six miles of mountains,
to reach the western section of the canal at Johnstown on the
Conemaugh, and so by the Allegheny to Pittsburgh.
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