United States Representative Jamie L. Whitten fought for years in Congress to secure funds to complete the Natchez Trace Parkway and the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway. His vision helped make possible the intersection of two great avenues of transportation, one past and one present, both for the future. He was responsible for reviving the Trace project and was instrumental in securing continuous appropriations for construction of the parkway as a memorial to the original Old Trace. The Old Trace was a trail through the Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Cherokee Nations between Natchez and Nashville, used by thousands of boatmen walking home after floating their trade goods to Natchez. After 1820, when steampower made upriver travel easier, many portions of the Natchez Trace were abandoned. Trade goods still move on the nation’s rivers, and Whitten led the House of Representatives in providing funds for construction of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway, which now joins two of the busiest navigation systems in the country and provides a more direct and economical water route between much of America’s heartland and the Gulf of Mexico.
