The author reviews the colorful pageant of the canal era in America as he rambles along the old towpaths where mules once trod, long ago given over to weed and buckbruch, to make this book one of the pleasantest of nostalgic adventures.

Introduction -- How and where it began -- The Connecticut River canals -- The Blackstone and other Yankee canals -- Down Chesapeake way -- The Dixie canals -- The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal -- The James River and Kanawha Canal -- The Delaware and Hudson Canal -- The Lehigh Valley Canal -- The Morris and Delaware division canals -- The Delaware and Raritan -- The state-owned canals of Pennsylvania -- The Susquehanna and Tidewater -- The Erie Canal: before the digging began -- The building of the Erie -- The great enterprise goes forward -- The wedding of the waters -- Canal mania and railroads -- The Ohio canals -- The Indiana canals: half a century of folly -- The Wabash and Erie: our longest canal -- The Louisville and Portland: the little bonanza -- The Illinois and Michigan: Joliet's canal -- The lotteries and corruption -- Fast packet for ... -- Canal sin, violence and prosperity.