Americana and the Erie Canal

Why does Srinivasan believe that it was esential for the new nation to remedy the inaccessibility between the east and west?

1. Because the nation was somewhat commercially linked between the north and south, but not the east and west.
   • "It was cheaper to transport goods from Pittsburgh to New Orleans than across the state to Philadelphia" (p. 70). Just look at our map and again, think about what Srinivasan tells us -
     • If you begin in western New York at the Allegheny River and move your goods south, you can travel downstream to Pittsburgh.
     • In Pittsburgh, the river merges with the Monongahela River to form the Ohio river.
     • The Ohio flows into the Mississippi all the way to the Gulf of Mexico.
   • "This meant that areas in the vicinity of the Great Lakes were commercially more connected to the American South than to their neighbors on the Atlantic shore" (p. 70).
2. Because the nation could not grow westward unless there were east and west transportation links - links that were inaccessible in the early 19th century due to the Appalachian mountains.
3. Because the growing nation would suffer from political "disconnectiveness" - physical isolation would prevent it from becoming a nation and instead, continue to encourage the growth of a "republic of near-sovereign states." (p. 70)