The B&O was built on the ROW of the P&O canal thru eastern ohio and kent oh
http://npshistory.com/publications/srs/pennsylvania-ohio-canal-recon-rpt.pdf
Not that big of a deal. Parts of the Stevenson Expressway (I-55) in Chicago are built on the right-of-way of the Illinois & Michigan Canal. I'm sure that there are similar situations elsewhere.
'New' forms of transportation frequently made use of rights of way that had been pioneered by other forms of transportation - from Indian pathways up through any of the other forms of transportation to what we have today.
What will tomorrow's forms of tranportation do with what currently exists today?
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Newar, NJ, subway, operated by light rail, is in an old canal bed. For a while it was operated by PCCs. The line has been extended beyond the canal bed, and there is a second route using what had been an abandoned subway-surface tunnel.
Where do u put the Telsa tube trains?
Erie Boulevard in Syracuse is built on the route of the Erie Canal. There are historic buildings that are across the street from each other. They once were across the canal.
Isn't the Pennsylvania Turnpike built on a railroad right-of-way, said railroad having never been built?
Yes Vanderbuilt started to build a railroad next to PRR in retaliation for the PRR building a railroad next to the NYC. JP Morgan held both RR excutives hostage on his yaght untill they agreed to play nice.
The NKP built their mainline through downtown Fort Wayne on the old Wabash & Erie canal property. They even bought a large chunk of that R/W West toward Lafayette for a proposed branch to St.Louis that never happened.
Down at the South end of the state, the Whitewater RR was built on the tow-patch of the Whitewater Canal. Long parts are dead level with short stretches of steep track where the locks used to be.
The American canal system was our first school of civil engineering. Rock Cuts Aquaducts and even tunnels like Paw Paw on the Cand O is where America would also learn how to build other future super projects like the Trans-Con Ry. and Pennsysvania Turnpike.
In 1836, the state of Indiana began construction on the Whitewater Canal in the southeastern part of the state. Cincinnati businessmen, concerned that the Whitewater Canal might reduce their business once it was completed, decided that it was necessary to build a canal that would connect the city to the Whitewater Canal. Since the canal would cross state boundaries, most of its funding came from private sources. The Ohio legislature only provided about one-third of the construction money, as required by the "Plunder Law".
The Cincinnati and Whitewater Canal was built between 1839 and 1843. When completed, the canal extended approximately ninety miles. Like most canals, things never went as smoothly as the builders had intended. Although the Cincinnati and Whitewater Canal did not have significant problems, the Whitewater Canal in Indiana experienced frequent flooding. This flooding meant that the Cincinnati and Whitewater was not fully utilized as well. Ultimately, the Whitewater Canal Company in Indiana went bankrupt in the 1850s. It was only a matter of time until the Cincinnati and Whitewater closed as well. In 1862, the Indianapolis and Cincinnati Railroad purchased the canal, choosing to lay its tracks on the old canal path
https://goo.gl/images/AYN5t5
https://goo.gl/images/L4Unv3
(The bigger challenge is coming up with the hardcopy documents for those railroads, a large number no longer exist. The courthouses are worse custodians of that stuff than some of the railroads were. The further east you go and the older the railroad, the worse it gets. Railroads like NYC, WAB, Maine Central and NH had some serious documenet custodial issues)
Recovered a GLO Filing Map from 1858 about two months ago that NCStL could not find in 1922. Fortunately with a little persistance, one the three original copies of the thing surfaced.
daveklepper Newar, NJ, subway, operated by light rail, is in an old canal bed. For a while it was operated by PCCs. The line has been extended beyond the canal bed, and there is a second route using what had been an abandoned subway-surface tunnel.
I wish I looked in on this thread sooner!
The canal David's referring to is the old Morris Canal, which ran across New Jersey from Phillipsburg on the Delaware to Jersey City on the Hudson. Small sections of it still survive to this day.
For those who're interested, here's a "quick and dirty" history of the same. It was quite an engineering feat for its time.
www.morriscanal.org/kids.htm
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