Historical Transportation of Navigable Rivers, Canals, and Railroads in the United States (ICPSR 36353)

Version Date: Mar 15, 2017

Cite this study |

Principal Investigator(s):
Jeremy Atack, Vanderbilt University

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR36353.v1

Version V1

Slide tabs to view more

Summary

This collection contains GIS materials which cover the spread of different modes of transportation in the lower 48 states from America's founding through (approximately) 1911. There are three transportation modes included in this collection: canals, steamboat-navigated (as opposed to simply navigable) rivers, and railroads.

The GIS materials can be downloaded by accessing the "Other" link.

Citation

Atack, Jeremy. Historical Transportation of Navigable Rivers, Canals, and Railroads in the United States. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2017-03-15. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR36353.v1

Export Citation:

  • RIS (generic format for RefWorks, EndNote, etc.)
  • EndNote

Subject Terms

Geographic Coverage

Distributor(s)

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
Hide

Time Period(s)

1780 -- 1920

Date of Collection

2010 -- 2015

Data Collection Notes

  1. These data georeference correctly against all tested base maps including NHGIS boundary files and USGS Topo maps.

  2. The original shapefiles used the 1983 North American geographic coordinate system with a contiguous USA Albers equal area conic projection.

Hide

Study Purpose

To document and detail the spread of improved means of transportation within the United States between the nation's founding through 1911.

Study Design

Digitized maps were geo-referenced using ArcGIS 10's spline algorithm against the National Historical Geographic Information System's 2009 TIGER-based historical state and county boundary files (see www.nhgis.org) and the U.S. National Atlas's database of cities and town. Railroads; No effort was made to identify or preserve double tracking. Sidings, yards, and turnouts, etc., were deleted whenever possible absent any knowledge as to when these features were constructed. Rivers and Canals; In general, rivers that were improved and called "navigations" are treated as rivers rather than canals EXCEPT for the Schuylkill and Bald Eagle and Spring Creek navigations where the man-made waterways exceeded the distance in natural channels.

Sample

Selection of benchmark dates and sources for railroad data are explained in the Procedures Documentation.

Universe

Continental United States

Unit(s) of Observation

Continental United States, Modes of transportation at benchmark dates

Data Source

The locations of transportation infrastructure were determined from USGS topographic maps of various vintages and by satellite imagery. Please refer to the Procedures Documentation for more information regarding sources.

Data Type(s)

Hide

Original Release Date

2016-12-22

Version History

2018-02-15 The citation of this study may have changed due to the new version control system that has been implemented. The previous citation was:
  • Atack, Jeremy. Historical Transportation of Navigable Rivers, Canals, and Railroads in the United States. ICPSR36353-v1. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2016-12-22. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR36353.v1

2017-03-15 Update to zipped files; files were renamed from "pkg" to "gda", to indicate the file hyperlink as "GIS" to users instead of "Other".

Hide

Weight

Not applicable

Hide

Notes