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A Vision of Global Commerce on the Eve of the Transcontinental: Maury’s 1868 Proposal for a Norfolk–Flushing Steam Line

A remarkable thematic map prepared by Matthew Fontaine Maury, the famed oceanographer and professor at the Virginia Military Institute, advocating for a transatlantic steamship line connecting Norfolk, Virginia to Flushing (Vlissingen), Netherlands as a strategic commercial and infrastructural alternative to the traditional routes via New York and Hamburg.

This map was lithographed to accompany Maury’s Physical Survey of Virginia (1868), a sweeping postwar treatise on the economic revival and national importance of the South, grounded in geography, oceanography, and the promise of integrated rail and sea commerce.

The map presents the entirety of the United States, Europe, and North Africa on a cylindrical projection, spanning from San Francisco and the Pacific Railroad to the Russian Empire, highlighting existing and proposed rail lines (solid and dashed) and water routes. A bold rhumb line cuts across the Atlantic Ocean, linking Norfolk and Flushing, emphasizing the route’s comparative shortness and efficiency (4,210 miles from Cologne to Cincinnati via Flushing/Norfolk, vs. 4,740 miles via Hamburg/New York).

Maury's argument, conveyed visually here, rests on economic geography: by linking the American Midwest and South directly to Northern Europe via Norfolk, this route would bypass the congested Northeast, lower costs, and revive Virginia as a central node in transatlantic commerce.

The map integrates numerous data references and is characteristic of Maury’s visionary blend of geostrategic thinking, oceanographic science, and commercial advocacy. As such, it occupies an interesting place in the post-Civil War reimagination of Southern infrastructure.