building the american landscape - Univerza v Novi Gorici

The new methods of communication and the innovative infrastructures built in
America were to trigger reactions and feelings very similar to those described by
Emerson. The artists were to be the first to acknowledge this phenomenon. In fact,
the possibility of having access to spectacular, picturesque, sublime sceneries was
to come as an opportunity to be seized rapidly by the artists of the Hudson River
School.
The early decades of the nineteenth century confirmed the age of internal
improvements and public works of national importance began, such as the
construction of roads, turnpikes (toll roads), canals and ports. The infrastructural
solution to the Northwest Ordinance (1787) and to the purchase of Louisiana (1803)
was faced from a political point of view by a proposal of law, presented by Albert
Gallatin in 1807. Gallatin, Secretary of the Treasury during the presidency of
Jefferson and Madison, presented a Report on the Subject of Public Roads and
Canals, which was rejected due to a lack of funds. The Gallatin project proposed to
encourage a massive investment by the federal government to construct roads and
canals. For this purpose, he drew up a report similar to a detailed estimate and
attached a minute description of the various works to be implemented. The canals
Gallatin listed can be grouped into four categories: “1) Great canals, from north to
south, along the Atlantic sea coast; 2) Communications between the Atlantic and
western waters; 3) Communications between the Atlantic waters, and those of the
great lakes, and river St. Lawrence; 4) Interior canals” 173 . The estimated costs also
envisaged an improvement in navigation in many rivers and took into account the
benefits of investments by private companies to develop projects not financed by
the central government.
The projects would have allowed miles and miles of internal navigation. Gallatin
also thought of important road projects. One large turnpike was supposed to begin
in Maine and go down as far as Georgia along the Atlantic coast, whereas another
four turnpikes were to have crossed the country, starting from the coast, crossing
the Appalachian Mountains, to reach as far as the rivers of the West.
173 GALLATIN, Albert, Report of the Secretary of the Treasury, on the Subject of Public Roads and
Canals, Made in Pursuance of a Resolution of Senate, of March 2, 1807, Washington, R.C:
Weightman, 1808, p. 8
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