[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 45 (Wednesday, April 22, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E631]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    HONORING THE 150TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ILLINOIS & MICHIGAN CANAL

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                           HON. JERRY WELLER

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, April 22, 1998

  Mr. WELLER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the 150th Anniversary 
of the Illinois & Michigan Canal. At its 150th birthday, the I&M Canal 
is one of the best-kept secrets of American history. In 1848, when the 
I&M Canal connected the Great Lakes and the Mississippi, it created a 
water highway between New York harbor and the Gulf of Mexico. The Canal 
opened the floodgates to an influx of new commodities, new people, and 
new ideas. The I&M, and the railroad and highway lines that soon 
paralleled its connection between Chicago and LaSalle, became the great 
passageway to the American West. At a stroke, the opening of the I&M 
Canal gave Illinois the key to mastery of the American mid-continent.
  The dream of the canal had animated every vision and underlaid every 
plan for Illinois for 200 years before. As it was being built, the 
Canal's commissioners laid out a canal port called Chicago that would 
grow into a great metropolis. Creative Illinois investors patented new 
agricultural and industrial machines that would make this the richest 
economic zone the world had ever seen. That people from all over the 
world flocked to the region, lending their intelligence and their 
muscle to building the most populous inland American state, and Chicago 
the greatest city of the American heartland, is directly traceable to 
the 97-mile canal that linked the Great Lakes to the Illinois and 
Mississippi rivers.
  The Illinois & Michigan Canal did not do the whole job by itself. But 
it started the ball rolling. In the wake of the canal, Chicago got its 
first street plan, attracted its first generation of merchants, created 
its board of trade and system of commodities trading. The railroads 
would complete the work, but only on the basis of what was pioneered by 
the canal.
  In 1984, Congress recognized the I&M Canal's historic significance 
and future potential by designating the nations' first Heritage 
Corridor. Private citizens, business and government leaders are 
cooperating in unprecedented park, trail, and historic preservation 
projects. After years of economic decline, the newly revitalized Canal 
Corridor is now becoming a splendid living history museum of American 
enterprise, technological invention, ethnic diversity, and cultural 
creativity. The I&M Canal's mix of open space conservation, historic 
preservation and economic development is fast becoming a national model 
for regional planning and tourism promotion. The heritage of the I&M 
Canal is becoming a catalyst for Northern Illinois' future economic 
health and an inspiration for future generations.

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