U.S. Census Office, Navigable Rivers and Principal Transportation Routes on the Sea Coast and Great Lakes: 1890 (1898)

This map, which was included in the Statistical Atlas of the United States based upon the Results of the Eleventh Census compiled under the direction of Henry Gannett, highlights primary domestic U.S. water transportation routes in 1890. Along the coast, the lines are labeled with the ports at each end point and the distance between them, though as is noted in the key, these lines and those in the Great Lakes "should not be taken to indicate the correct sailing tracks." Varying lines over the rivers correspond to varying water depths, and each horizontal tick mark at the ends of a route, or "head of navigation," is the farthest point upstream on a river that is navigable by a vessel. The lines symbolizing "slackwater navigation" show waterways that had been made navigable by building dams and locks to create calm, deep, and slow-moving pools (slack water), drowning dangerous rapids. Water transportation was one of the early reliable forms of transportation in the United States, particularly after the invention of the steamboat. "Steamers" contributed greatly to the U.S. economy by carrying tons of agricultural products, industrial supplies, and passengers through its rivers, lakes, and coastal waterways. By the 1870s, however, railroads had begun to supplant steamboats as the major cross-country transporter of both goods and passengers.