InOvercoming Niagara Janet Dorothy Larkin analyzes the canal age from the perspective of the Niagara–Great Lakes borderland between 1792 and 1837. She shows what drove the transportation revolution, not the conventional story of westward expansion and the international/metropolitan rivalry between Great Britain and the United States, but a dynamic connection, cooperation, and healthy competition in a transnational-borderland region. Larkin focuses on North America's three most vital waterways—the Erie, Oswego, and Welland Canals. Canadian and American transportation leaders and promoters mutually sought to overcome the natural and artificial barriers presented by Niagara Falls by building an integrated, interconnected canal system, thus strengthening the borderland economy and propelling westward expansion, market development, and the Niagara tourist industry. On the heels of the Erie Canal's bicentennial in 2017Overcoming Niagara explores the transnational nature of the canal age within the Niagara–Great Lakes borderland, and its impact on the commercial and cultural landscape of this porous region.

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments

1. Introduction

2. The “Greatest Display in Nature”: The Niagara−Great Lakes Borderland Region before the War of 1812

3. “As Irresistible as the ‘Cataract of Niagara’ ”: The Erie Canal and the Promises of the North American Canal Age

4. “A Salutary and Desirable Competition”: New York State Influence in the Building of the First Welland Canal

5. The Oswego Canal: “One of the Great Traveling and Commercial Thoroughfares”

6. “The Great Wonder of the Canal”

7. Conclusion

Notes
Bibliography
Index