books of interest
T. Gibson Hobbs was an engineer by vocation, and a passionate historian by avocation. His knowledge and interest in both is evident in this book. The skill and foresight it took to engineer the James River and Kanawa Canal, was the same skill Mr. Hobbs put to his thirty year study of this engineering feat. Although the utility of the canal is long past, it is not without note. It played a vital part in the building of a young nation.
A canal that would give Virginia a water route to the Ohio River was first suggested by George Washington in 1784. From this expansionist thought came the forming of the first James River Company in 1785. Commerce and trade along this route would play an important role for at least 200 years. The people involved in building the canal are also a roster of well-known Virginia names: John Marshall, Claudius Crozet, Joseph Carrington Cabell, and Charles Ellet, Jr., just to name a few. The engineering and the political history are both well covered in this book. It is beautifully put together with outstanding maps, photographs and charts.
A canal that would give Virginia a water route to the Ohio River was first suggested by George Washington in 1784. From this expansionist thought came the forming of the first James River Company in 1785. Commerce and trade along this route would play an important role for at least 200 years. The people involved in building the canal are also a roster of well-known Virginia names: John Marshall, Claudius Crozet, Joseph Carrington Cabell, and Charles Ellet, Jr., just to name a few. The engineering and the political history are both well covered in this book. It is beautifully put together with outstanding maps, photographs and charts.
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