Editing Evansville, Indiana (section)

=== 18th and 19th centuries ===
Evansville's economy received a boost in the early 1830s when Indiana unveiled plans to build the [[Wabash and Erie Canal|longest canal in the world]], a 400-mile ditch to connect the Great Lakes at [[Toledo, Ohio]] with the inland rivers at Evansville. The project was intended to open Indiana to commerce and improve transportation from [[New Orleans]] to [[New York City]]. The project bankrupted the state and was so poorly engineered that it would not hold water. By the time the [[Wabash and Erie Canal]] was finished in 1853, Evansville's first railroad, [[Evansville & Crawfordsville Railroad]], was opened to Terre Haute.<ref name="Morlock"/> The expansion of railroads in this territory had made the canal obsolete. Only two flat barges ever made the entire trip.<ref name="Evansville Living">{{cite news | title=Remember When | work=Evansville Living | year=2012 | author=Coures, Kelley}}</ref> The canal basin at Fifth and Court street in downtown Evansville became the site of a new courthouse in 1891.<ref name="Evansville Living" />

The era of Evansville's greatest growth occurred in the second half of the 19th century, following the disruptions of the [[American Civil War|Civil War]]. The city was a major stop for steamboats along the Ohio River, and it was the home port for a number of companies engaged in trade via the river.<ref>Roberts, Charles E. ''Evansville, Her Commerce and Manufacturers''. Evansville: 1874.</ref> Coal mining, manufacturing, and hardwood lumber was a major source of economic activity. By 1900, Evansville was one of the world's largest hardwood furniture centers, with 41 factories employing approximately 2,000 workers. Railroads eventually became more important and in 1887 the [[Louisville and Nashville Railroad|L&N Railroad]] constructed a bridge across the Ohio River.<ref>{{cite book |last=Morlock |first=James E. |chapter=The Railroad Builders in Evansville |title=Was It Yesterday? |editor=James E. Morlock |place=Evansville |publisher=University of Evansville Press |year=1980}}</ref> Along with a major rail yard southwest of Evansville in Howell, which was annexed in 1916 and completed the city's counterclockwise march around the horseshoe bend.

Throughout this period, Evansville's main ethnic groups consisted of Protestant Scotch-Irish from the South, Catholic Irish coming for canal or railroad work, New England businessmen, Germans fleeing Europe after the 1848 revolutions, and [[freedmen]] from western Kentucky.<ref>Gilbert, F.M. (1910) ''History of the City of Evansville and Vanderburgh County'', Vol. I. Chicago: Pioneer Publishing Company.</ref> By the [[United States Census, 1890|1890 census]], Evansville ranked as the 56th-largest urban area in the United States, but it was surpassed in population by other cities in the early 1900s.<ref>{{cite web |title=Table 12. Population of the 100 Largest Urban Places: 1890 |date=June 15, 1998 |publisher=U.S. Bureau of the Census |url=https://www.census.gov/population/documentation/twps0027/tab12.txt|access-date=2006-05-02|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20060424121352/http://www.census.gov/population/documentation/twps0027/tab12.txt |archive-date=2006-04-24}}</ref> As the new century began, the city continued to develop to its eastern areas. Manufacturing also took off, particularly in the automobile and refrigeration industries.

[[File:Graham Brothers Truck Plant, Evansville, Indiana.jpg|thumb|left|Final stage of truck assembly at Graham Brothers Truck Plant in Evansville, 1920]]