Did you know a historian* actually looked at a bunch of old statistics and determined that, if railroads had never been invented, a network of canals** would have served just as well to develop the American Midwest?
Admit it: 60-foot man-made rivers are way cooler than puny little 2-inch ribbons of steel. ITT discuss canals.

*Robert Fogel (Railroads and American Economic Growth, 1964)
**Pic related. All the canals in the image have shallow enough grades, and enough water at their summits, that they could have been constructed and operated in year 1890, allowing farmers in a radius of 80 miles to bring their produce to the canal for profitable shipment.