#137-CIVIL WAR SALE: HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES SPEECH BY LINCOLN RE: EXPANDED WATERWAYS ~$20 MILLION

I found this one of the most interesting of the many government printed reports I obtained for this sale. This is a report to the House of Representatives with an opening explanation of what was at hand by Abraham Lincoln as President.

The project included enlarging key canals (among them the Erie Canal) and other work as part of the massive project to make it possible for Union gunboats to travel "to the Northern and Northwestern Lakes."

I don't think this $20 million project in 1864 could be viewed simply by taking the value in 1864 and extrapolating to 2025 dollars. Considering how government statistics say the same thing would have cost something like $400 million today, we know all to well that today such large projects typically take longer than planned and cost a lot more money to complete.

You can see the division of all of the costs as presented to Congress in this report. Just look in the newspaper when a major freeway is expanded or a professional sports arena is built. Such projects begin counting in billions not millions of dollars.

The entire report on the proposed project discusses how it would be accomplished in 1864....try to imagine the process to accomplish this today.