Once upon a time, the United States was a can-do country. In 2025, we are celebrating the bicentennial of the completion of the Erie Canal begun in 1817 in Rome, New York. The Marquis de Lafayette in his return trip to the United States in 1824-1825 actually traveled portions of the Erie Canal in June 1825. The American Friends of Lafayette will be celebrating that journey from Niagara Falls to Albany next month.
The completion of the Erie Canal launched an extended period of achievements eventually culminating in the landing on the moon. The opening of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, at the eastern end of the Erie Canal was one spinoff of the construction. The top engineers were drawn to the building of the Canal.
For more than a century to come, the United States was the place to be at the forefront of technological development. [Read more…] about Peter Feinman: Save the SS United States
As 2019 drew to a close, I concluded my review of the conferences I attended or would like to have attended in 2019. The final one was the annual conference of the Westchester/Lower Hudson Council for the Social Studies held on December 13 at a hotel in West Harrison in Westchester County. 