Wedding of the Waters: The Erie Canal and the Making of a Great Nation

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W. W. Norton & Company, 2005 - Business & Economics - 448 pages
The building of the Erie Canal is one of the greatest and most riveting stories of American ingenuity. Now a bestselling author presents the story of the canal's construction against the larger tableau of America in the first quarter-century of the 1800s.

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Contents

Acknowledge
13
Does It Not Seem Like Magic?
19
Smooth Sailing
29
Hudsons Wrong Turn
44
Washingtons Pivot
59
Canal Maniacs
75
A Canal to the Moon
87
THE ACTION BEGINS
107
Rude Incentive
237
Unwearied Zeal
258
A Noble Work
279
The Pageant of Power
293
The Weeding of the Waters
308
No Charge for Births
325
The Prodigious Artery
343
The Granary of the World
364

The Extravagant Proposal
126
The Expedition
142
War and Peace
160
The Shower of Gold
180
Digging the Ditch
203
Boom Bust Bonds
220
EPILOGUE
379
Notes
383
Bibliography
413
Illustration Credits
424
Index
425
Copyright

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About the author (2005)

Peter L. Bernstein (1919--2009), the financial historian, wrote nine books, including the worldwide bestseller Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk.

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