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More than 25,000 miles of inland and offshore waterways represent one of the largest and longest-lived programmes ever undertaken by the US federal government to build social infrastructure. Through its control of the waterways, which is derived from setting terms of access to the waterways and assessing user fees, Congress guarantees overspending and industry dependency. This book discusses how and why the system evolved to its present form, and examines how effective and instrumental the federal and private roles have been in its development. Because the institutional set-up for the waterways is shared by many other social infrastructure programmes - including interstate highways, air traffic control, and telecommunications - the book explores how more effective institutions could be designed to build the next generation of social infrastructure.