Gore also resumed business activities upon his return . He invested in a wide variety of businesses and infrastructure , spurring economic activity in the state . His investments ranged widely , including maritime insurance ( where is father @-@ in @-@ law had made his fortune ) , bridges , locks , canals , and textiles . He was a major investor in the Middlesex Canal , the Craigie Bridge ( the first to connect Boston to Cambridge ) , and the Boston Manufacturing Company , whose factory proving the single @-@ site production of textiles was in Waltham near his estate . Not all of his ventures panned out : the canal was in the long run a financial failure , as were efforts with other collaborators to develop Lechmere Point , the Cambridge side of the Craigie Bridge . The textile mill , however , was a success , and Gore invested in the Merrimack Manufacturing Company . When it decided to locate in what is now Lowell , Massachusetts , Gore purchased shares in the Proprietors of Locks and Canals , which operated ( and still owns today ) the Lowell canals .