Canals

A canal is a waterway used for the shipping of goods and for transportation between two points. A canal can be built where there is no existing waterway, or it can be a river modified to handle such traffic. Canals also are used to move water to irrigate farmland.

The earliest canals were canalized rivers, and their design included methods for bypassing obstacles such as rapids or waterfalls. The first canal in the United States was on the Connecticut River at South Hadley, Massachusetts; it was built in 1793 and designed to detour rapids on the river.

Canals tend to be level or have a slight incline. For canals to be effective over great distances and through different elevations, a canal lock is required. A canal lock is an enclosure in the canal that has gates on each end. As a boat enters the canal lock, the gate is closed behind it, and water is let in to the lock to allow the boat to rise to the next level of the canal, or water is let out so it is lowered to the next level. The second gate is then opened, and the boat continues on its journey.

Canals have proven to be useful tools in opening up frontiers as well as in helping business interests, not only at the canal ends, but also in the communities along the route. Shipping products on canals was not limited to transporting goods from one end to the other; there was also traffic among towns and cities along the canals. For the most part, canals were used to ship manufactured goods from seaport cities to the hinterland, while agricultural products, timber, stone, and coal were shipped from the hinterland to the large seaport cities.

During the colonial period of American history, factories and mills were located near waterfalls, which powered these industries. Because locks were built to guide boats around these obstacles, factory and mill owners built docks for easy loading of products onto the boats. Thus, their products could be shipped to other towns along the canal or to the port cities. Between 1815 and 1860, a total of 4,254 miles of canal were completed in the United States.