During the nineteenth century, the mechanization of farming and the fencing of range land opened the agricultural heart of North America to intensive development. As the natural geographic center of this region, Chicago became the crossroads of a vast transportation network. The great waterway systems of the Mississippi valley and the Great Lakes were linked in Chicago in 1847, when the Illinois- Michinga Canal was opened to traffic. Within the next year, rail lines began to operate trains to and from the city. The rise of agricultural activity demanded facilities for the storage and milling of grain, the slaughtering of cattle, and the processing and shipment of meat. The manufacture of farm machinery branched out into the basic metal- fabricating and woodworking industries. This soon attracted banks and other financial instiutions. Four years after the end of the Civil War, Chicago was already established as the focal point of the largest system of inland waterways in the world and the hub of a rail network that extended to the Atlantic, Gulf, and Pacific coasts. The productive potential of the city was unparalleled, and the pace of its industrial expansion reached explosive proportions.