Most "Great" American endeavors were built by free workers. The America we know today was begun after the civil war and emancipation proclamation by President Lincoln. Prior was a bunch of southern plantation states using ignorant and enslaved people for agriculture, not building cities, roads or utilities.
i.e., Commercial competition across the commonwealth
In 1825, the Erie Canal linked New York City to Niagara Falls and enhanced trade opportunities in the eastern United States. Watching its success, Pennsylvania merchants became envious. Dave Wright with the Pennsylvania Canal Society, an organization that preserves the system’s history, said commonwealth businesses and lawmakers didn’t want to be left out.
“They said, “Well, we’ve got to do something about this,’” Wright said. “So they sent an architect … to try and take notes and to observe the technology that had been developed.”