Chapter 11: Canal-Mania

From the 1760s to the 1830s, Great Britain went crazy for canals. America did too. These waterways helped speed up trade and fuel industrialization in the age before trains and highways. In the process, they created all kinds of new jobs and opportunities.Characters covered in this chapter include: Thomas Steers, the engineer who modernized river navigation in Lancashire; The Duke of Bridgewater, who built Britain’s first modern canal; James Brindley, who engineered the Bridgewater Canal and the Trent & Mersey Canal; Thomas Telford, the architect who built a huge iron aqueduct in Wales and “Neptune’s Staircase” in Scotland; William Weston, a British civil engineer who helped build the first canals in America; and Benjamin Henry Latrobe, a British architect who emigrated to the U.S. and helped build the new capital.