​Illinois & Michigan Canal

​Constructed between 1836 and 1848, the Illinois & Michigan Canal, allowed boat transportation from the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico. The canal enabled navigation across the Chicago Portage and helped establish Chicago as a major interior transportation hub, opening before railroads were laid in the area. Its function was largely replaced by the wider and shorter Chicago Sanitary & Ship Canal in 1900 and it ceased transportation operations in 1933.