Charles Dickens, Cairo, and the Panic of 1837

[...]there is not in any quarter of the globe a situation so commanding and replete with every kind of produce and materials to promote the prosperity of the merchant, the skill of the mechanic and the growth of a great city. [...]boosters frequently invoked a "climate theory of urban growth," which connected the growth of great metropolitan cities with places on the earth that exhibited a specific variability in temperature. [...]in 1840 construction of the Illinois Central Railroad stopped, a year later the state defaulted on its debt, and in 1842 the State Bank of Illinois collapsed completely.54 In the midst of this economic crisis, a massive flood hit Cairo in the spring of 1840 and further compounded the city's woes, wiping out much if not all of Holbrook's original developments (Figure 6). According to one newspaper report "the town-plat of Cairo is completely submerged and great fears are entertained of the destruction of New Orleans.