"The Erie Canal poured into New York City [wealth] far exceeding that which its early friends predicted. . . . In the city, merchants, bankers, warehousemen, [and] shippers . . . seized the opportunity to perfect and specialize their services, fostering round after round of business innovations that within a decade of the opening of the Erie Canal had made New York by far the best place in America to engage in commerce. . . .". . . Even before its economic benefits were realized fully, rival seaports with hopes of tapping interior trade began to imagine dreadful prospects of permanent eclipse. Whatever spirit of mutual good feeling and national welfare once greeted [internal improvements] now disappeared behind desperate efforts in cities . . . to create for themselves a westward connection."John Lauritz Larson, historian, Internal Improvement: National Public Works and the Promise of Popular Government in the Early United States, 2001which of the following later developments had an effect most similar to that described in the excerpt? A. the invention of the mechanical reaper in the 1830sB. the annexation of Texas in the 1840sC. the growth of political party competition in the 1850sD. the completion of the first transcontinental railroad in the 1860s

Then try StudyFetch, the AI-powered platform that can answer your questions and teach you more about it!