It helped set up Chicago as the transportation hub of the United States. Most of the canal work was accomplished by Irish immigrants who had previously labored on the Erie Canal. Towns had been planned out alongside the path of the canal, spaced at intervals comparable to the length that the mules might haul the barges. From 1848 to 1852, the canal was a well-liked passenger route, however this led to 1853 with the opening of the Chicago, Rock Island, and Pacific Railroad that ran parallel to the canal.
