Sugar & Ice
In the Nineteenth Century, ice was a valuable commodity. In Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, train tracks were laid and a rail system was developed to move ice from Fresh Pond to the wharfs in Charlestown for shipping all over the world. These developments in engineering and modes of travel and distribution were a part of the first wave of the Industrial Revolution, changing the way our ancestors inhabited their environment and connected with the world around them.
During the late Eighteenth and early Nineteenth Century in Carlow, Ireland, a system of lateral canals was engineered and built on the river Barrow, to move produce from the area to the cities and ports for trade. Later, the existence of this canal system as a trade route, influenced the decision to build a large sugar factory on the banks of the river in Carlow in 1925. The sugar industry played a vital role in the development of Carlow and until the factory was dismantled in 2005.
The ice business remained important in Cambridge up to the 1950’s, and the rail system developed helped shape the contemporary topography of the city. The train line servicing Fresh Pond continued to move other produce past the demise of the ice industry, but this line finally closed in 2005.
