Panel A shows the waterway network: natural waterways (including navigable rivers, lakes, and oceans) and constructed canals. Panel B adds railroads constructed by 1860, Panel C adds railroads constructed between 1860 and 1870, and Panel D adds railroads constructed beween 1870 and 1880.
Insight·Mar 10, 2020
Waterways and Railroads, by Decade
Based on BFI Working Paper No. 2019-146, “Railroads, Reallocation, and the Rise of American Manufacturing” by Richard Hornbeck, V. Duane Rath Professor of Economics and Neubauer Family Faculty Fellow, UChicago’s Booth School of Business; and Martin Rotemberg, assistant professor, New York University