Page 68 - Curriculum Visions Dynamic Book

Federal lands were given free, so people came from all of the Atlantic regions. As it happened, Indianapolis’s flat, fertile soil, and central location within Indiana and Midwest, helped it become an early agricultural center.
Indianapolis had, by coincidence, other advantages. It was close to the White River, which could be used to power the city’s mills
in the 1820s and 1830s. However, the White River was too shallow for steamboats, and so the state put all its efforts into securing a good railroad connection. With a lot of push from the state legislators, the railroads arrived in 1847. It changed everything, for goods could now get to the rest of the country. Indianapolis grew
as a manufacturing hub and a transportation center for this part of the Midwest, especially concentrating on farm products. It also quickly became a center for banking and insurance.
Beef and pork-packing plants opened, as did iron and brass foundries.
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