In the early decades of the 1800s stately sloops were joined on Lake Champlain by an increasing number of steamboats, an efficient new maritime technology offering speed and improved upwind navigational ability. Lake Champlain quickly became a bustling shipping highway, and Essex prosperity was ensured for the region’s most important mercantile port.
In 1823 the Champlain Canal was completed, opening up navigable access between Lake Champlain and the Hudson River to steamboats and other barges. Materials and finished goods sourced in and around Essex could now be transported to thriving markets in New York City and beyond.
Steamboat transport opened up and entirely new chapter for regional commerce, not only of raw and manufactured goods, but also for human transportation. Steamboats offered efficient, scenic and significantly more “civilized” access to a region previously too remote for significant travel. But the arrival of steamboats and completion of the Champlain Canal provided transformative infrastructure that would dramatically change the region.
Essex prosperity was assured! Or so it seemed…
Related articles
- Essex Doodles Weekly: From Steamboats to Bombs (www.essexonlakechamplain.com)
- Steamboat Sighting (www.essexonlakechamplain.com)
- Lake Champlain Steamboats Revisited (www.essexonlakechamplain.com)
- Sailing through history in Vermont, NYS, Canada (northcountrypublicradio.org)
- Vintage Postcard: Gem of the Lake (www.essexonlakechamplain.com)
- Essex-Charlotte Canal (rosslynredux.com)
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