"Taking advantage of a rich trove of construction records, travelers' writings, and visual material, Stairway to Empire examines the triumphs and tensions of this iconic American accomplishment and its place in the larger narrative of American modernity and progress."-inside jacket.

Leaving Lockport : and returning to the canal's beginning -- Locating Lockport : the canal and the continent's last barrier -- Cutting Lockport : laborers, citizens, and five years at the mountain ridge -- Writing Lockport : a dialogue on American progress -- Losing Lockport : afterlife of the mountain ridge conquest.