In the 19th century, Agen and Villeneuve-sur-Lot were the only true towns in a Department with one of lowest urban populations in France. 
Agen was a commercial, administrative and military town. Its industry had declined, and its most important function was as a "warehouse between Bordeaux and Toulouse". Exports were now restricted to agricultural produce. 
Then, in the second half of the century, cheap cereal imports and the phylloxera crisis in the vineyards put pay to any agricultural modernisation and it was not until the end of the century that Agen even had a proper bank.
The completion of the canal was overshadowed by the arrival of the railway in 1856, which took a lion's share of the traffic.



Agen society was also changing. Aristocratic and Bourgeois families socialised and intermarried. Primary and secondary non-religious education became available for boys and girls. Following the Haussmann model from Paris, Agen, which had an insalubrious reputation and was little changed from the Middle Ages, acquired water, sewage, gas and a public transport system. Urban sprawl was controlled. The town centre was transformed with the creation of the two main boulevards - Carnot and de la République. 




On the waterways, a bridge - the Pont de Pierre - spanned the Garonne for the first time and the Canal Bridge, the second longest in France, was begun in 1839. 

The Canal Bridge.