Canal System Started with Committee Report of February 19, 1791

In the earliest days, before railroads and steam power were developed, water communication was the popular mode of commercial transportation. The spirit of the early settlers in Pennsylvania was alive with the idea of internal improvement, and very early they were anxious to reach out toward the western empire that was to become the promised land and furnish food for the world. The ultimate result of this vision was the construction of the grand system of canals connecting the navigable rivers, Delaware and Ohio, by which products of the States and Territories to the westward could be carried to Philadelphia, the metropolitan seaport city of Pennsylvania.

William Penn fostered the idea and recommended a scheme to connect the Susquehanna at what is now Middletown with Philadelphia by uniting the waters of the Schuylkill River at Reading with those of Tulpehocken Creek and the Quittapahilla, which flowed into the Swatara ten miles westward and thence into the Susquehanna at Middletown.

As early as 1761 Commissioners were appointed by the Proprietaries to clear, scour and make the Schuylkill navigable for boats, flats, rafts, canoes and other small vessels, from the ridge of mountains commonly called the Blue Mountains to the river Delaware. This action was the initial step in the formation of the Schuylkill Navigation Company.

The broad river itself in many portions was concentrated into pools 131forming slack water navigation and these pools were connected by sections of canals with a depth of six feet of water, passing boats with a capacity of 200 tons.

The committee appointed in January, 1791, to examine the report of the Commissioners who explored the Delaware and western waters of the Susquehanna, reported February 19. They considered the Delaware toward New York State and to Lake Ontario; the Lehigh and Schuylkill, the latter with the object of reaching Harrisburg; the Juniata and the north and west branches of the Susquehanna.

The several principal canals of the State in the order of the dates in which they were created by acts of Assembly, and from which all others were either extensions or feeders, were as follows:

1. Schuylkill and Susquehanna Navigation Company, created September 29, 1791, passed through the counties of Dauphin, Lebanon and Berks. It began at Columbia on the Susquehanna and extended to the mouth of the Juniata, then later on up along that river to Hollidaysburg at the eastern base of the Allegheny Mountains—a total length of 171 miles.

2. Delaware and Schuylkill, April 10, 1792, in Berks, Montgomery and Philadelphia Counties.

3. Conewago Canal in York County, April 10, 1793.

4. Brandywine Canal and Lock Navigation, April 10, 1793.

5. Lehigh Navigation, February 27, 1798, in Northampton and Luzerne Counties. A total of forty-six miles.

6. Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, February 19, 1801.

7. Concocheague Navigation, February 7, 1803; connected Chambersburg with the Potomac.

8. Conestoga Lock and Dam Navigation, March 17, 1806, in Lancaster County, was an improvement of Conestoga Creek by locks and dams from its mouth to the city of Lancaster, a distance of fourteen miles.

9. Union Canal Company, April 2, 1811, connected the Susquehanna at Middletown to the Schuylkill two miles below Reading; length eighty-two miles. There was also a branch canal and feeder twenty-two miles in length with a railroad of four miles to Pine Grove coal mines.

10. Neshaminy Lock Navigation, March 26, 1814.

11. Schuylkill Navigation, March 8, 1815, in Schuylkill, Berks, Montgomery, Chester and Philadelphia Counties. This began at Port Carbon on Schuylkill, and ran to Philadelphia, a distance of 108 miles.

12. Lackawanna Navigation, February 5, 1817, a part of the Delaware and Hudson Canal, from Honesdale on the Lackawaxen to the mouth of that stream, a distance of twenty miles.

13. Monongahela Navigation, March 24, 1817, in Fayette, Greene, Westmoreland, Washington and Allegheny Counties. From Johnstown 132on the Conemaugh, at the western base of the Allegheny down the Conemaugh, Kiskiminetas and Allegheny to Pittsburgh—distance, 105 miles.

14. Octoraro Navigation, March 29, 1819.

15. Conewago Canal, east side, March 29, 1814.

In the report of Canal Commissioners made in 1827 was this paragraph:

“In the latter end of May the location of a line from the mouth of the Juniata to Northumberland was commenced, beginning at Duncan Island, and extending up the west side to a point opposite Northumberland.” This canal was thirty-seven miles in length.

The North Branch began at Northumberland and extended to two miles below Wilkes-Barre, and later extended to New York State line.

The West Branch began at Northumberland and ran to Muncy Dam, a distance of twenty-six miles, but later was extended to Bald Eagle, where it united with the Erie Canal.

After extensive surveys made in 1824 and 1825, the Commonwealth entered, in the year 1826, into the actual construction of an extended system of internal improvements and continued the annual expenditure of large sums of money for canals and railroads for fifteen years, or until 1841.

Ground was broken at Harrisburg for the building of the Pennsylvania Canal, on July 4, 1826. By the year 1834 a total of 673 miles of public works had been completed, at a time when the credit of the State was good. But unfortunately too extensive a system was undertaken and the works were not constructed or managed with economy. The debt of 1834 had mounted to twenty-three millions. By 1841 it reached forty-two millions, and the State defaulted even the interest on these bonds and all work ceased.