The Ohio River is a major waterway in the United States ranging from western Pennsylvania and joining the Mississippi River in southern Illinois. The name "Ohio" is from the Seneca word meaning Good River. Major cities on the river include Pittsburgh, PA, Cincinnati, OH, and Louisville, KY. The 1830 construction of the Louisville and Portland Canal helped facilitate increased commerce among the seven states it reaches. In the nineteenth century, the Ohio River was a dividing point between the free northern states and the slave-owning southern states; many enslaved people crossed the Ohio River to freedom, often with the help of the Underground Railroad.