Special Features - Slideshow

A Window on the World: Views of 19th Century Life in American Schoolbooks, 1823-1852

Olney's Modern Geography, 1841. Image courtesy of Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association Library.

About this Image

Canal and railroad construction was not simple. It involved the engineering of bridges, tunnels, and dams. The excavations that were part of this activity also exposed hidden depths of the earth for geologists.