"The book offers everything a reader of novels could want: a substantial and minutely sketched historical, topographical, and social background in the development of Palmyra in the early days of the grand canal."--Foreword.
Most likely the Erie Canal would never been built but for the strong-minded De Witt Clinton. On the Fourth of July, 1817, digging for the canal was finally started at Rome, New York. How it was carried through to success is told in this book.
