Historical Transportation of Navigable Rivers, Canals, and Railroads in the United States (ICPSR 36353)
Version Date: Mar 15, 2017 View help for published
Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s)
Jeremy Atack, Vanderbilt University
https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR36353.v1
Version V1
Summary View help for 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.
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Subject Terms View help for Subject Terms
Geographic Coverage View help for Geographic Coverage
Distributor(s) View help for Distributor(s)
Time Period(s) View help for Time Period(s)
Date of Collection View help for Date of Collection
Data Collection Notes View help for Data Collection Notes
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These data georeference correctly against all tested base maps including NHGIS boundary files and USGS Topo maps.
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The original shapefiles used the 1983 North American geographic coordinate system with a contiguous USA Albers equal area conic projection.
Study Purpose View help for 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 View help for 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 View help for Sample
Selection of benchmark dates and sources for railroad data are explained in the Procedures Documentation.
Universe View help for Universe
Continental United States
Unit(s) of Observation View help for Unit(s) of Observation
Data Source View help for 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) View help for Data Type(s)
HideOriginal Release Date View help for Original Release Date
2016-12-22
Version History View help for Version History
- 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".
Notes
These data are freely available to data users at ICPSR member institutions. The curation and dissemination of this study are provided by the institutional members of ICPSR. How do I access ICPSR data if I am not at a member institution?