From the mid 1800s to mid 1900s travel by rail was by far the best means of land transport for both passengers and freight. What roads that existed were primitive; most modern logging roads would look like a freeway by comparison. Shipping heavy goods such as lumber was practical only by water. In the early 1800s canals such as the Welland, Lachine and Rideau canal system were built to open up the major waterways of the Great Lakes, Ottawa and St. Lawrence River, but travel in the vast interior of Upper Canada remained difficult.