Page:Historic highways of America (Volume 14).djvu/159

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LOCAL INFLUENCES OF THE CANAL
155

next engages attention and the result is thus outlined:

"As before mentioned Section A was an old well-settled region during this period, and although property had a tendency to mass along the banks of the Hudson and gradually to diminish as the distance from the river increased, still this increase of the valuation of property advanced much more slowly than the increase in population.

"Section B was an old and well settled region, but it was not as old as Section A. Here valuation massed along the canal but it did not increase as rapidly as the population, still it increased more rapidly in proportion to the increase of population than did Section A.

"Section C was a new region where the increase in valuation kept pace with the increasing population and even exceeded it.

"A re-invigoration of an old region by increased commercial advantages such as the Erie canal provided for in Sections A and B results in an increase of property within about six miles of that commercial route, but it has little effect outside of that limit. This increase of property, however,