In 1673, French-Canadian voyageur Louis Joliet, the city's namesake, was the first to suggest building a waterway connecting the Great Lakes with waters flowing to the Mississippi. Completed in 1848, the Illinois and Michigan Canal helped transform Joliet from a frontier outpost into a major commercial center. Built by Irish, German, and Scandinavian immigrants, the canal changed the landscape of northern Illinois and had an immediate and lasting impact on the Midwestern economy. By the mid-1850's, rail lines along the canal route made freight transport increasingly competitive, and the canal reduced its tolls. The opening of the Illinois Waterway adjacent to the Illinois and Michigan Canal in 1933 ended the canal's shipping industry. After 70 years of disrepair and neglect, Congress recognized the canal region in 1984 by designating it the country's first National Heritage Corridor, preserving it as a link between past and present. Running through Joliet on the west side of the Des Plaines River, the canal and the Des Plaines together spurred Joliet's industrial growth, helping launch its era of stone and its age of steel and creating thousands of new jobs for immigrants.