Virginia Magazine of History and Biography
Volume 108 / Number 3
ABSTRACT:
The Decline of the Port of Richmond: The Congress, the Corps, and the Chamber of Commerce
- By Steven J. Hoffman, pp. 255–78
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, despite wielding a great deal of economic power, local
elites often found themselves unable to control elements of the larger economy that had a significant influence
on urban development. Remaining competitive in the face of rapid technological advances was an especially
difficult task. As the American economy expanded and the role of the national government grew in the late
nineteenth century, local control over many of the factors affecting people's lives diminished. This article
explores how, despite the best efforts of the Richmond Chamber of Commerce, the city's major commercial
association, Richmond's status as a river port declined steadily throughout the late-nineteenth and early
twentieth century. The Chamber's inability to obtain adequate funding from Congress to increase the
depth of the James River to permit the passage of the larger ships introduced after the Civil War, did
not result from inaction, ineptitude, or the conservative nature of Richmond's businessmen, but rather,
from economic and political forces beyond their control. In the final analysis, the role of the United
States Congress and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in promoting or inhibiting river channel improvements
combined with the inherent inadequacies of the James River to have a much great effect on Richmond's local
economic development than the well intentioned efforts of the city's commercial-civic elites.
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