Monday, February 19, 2007
Information about the Pennsylvania and Ohio Canal's history:
It was 82 miles long from Akron to south of New Castle, Pa. It connected with the Ohio and Erie Canal, which connected Lake Erie with the Ohio River.
It was built along the Mahoning River, entering the Mahoning Valley at Newton Falls and traveled through Newton Falls, Warren, Niles, Girard, Youngstown and Lowellville, where it entered Pennsylvania.
It joined the Beaver and Erie Canal, seven miles south of New Castle, eventually going to Pittsburgh.
It required 54 locks and a lift of 424 feet. Fifty of the locks were in Ohio. It required two aqueducts, nine dams and 57 road bridges. It was known as a feeder canal to the Ohio and Lake Erie Canal.
Privately funded, construction began in 1835 and was completed in 1840. Work on the canal was suspended in 1837 because of a cholera epidemic. Work resumed in 1838.
Unlike other canals in Ohio, the P & amp;O did not receive much state funding to construct because the state Legislature felt it could not justify providing money for a canal that extended beyond the Ohio boundary.
The canal was eventually abandoned and sold by 1877. Most of the land was sold to railroads and industries.
It also was called the Mahoning Canal because most of its length traveled along the Mahoning River valley. It opened up markets to farmers and encouraged the development of the iron ore industry that was to become the backbone of development in the Mahoning Valley.
James A. Garfield, the 20th president of the United States, worked on the canal during the summer of 1848, shipping copper ore, coal, salt and lumber between Cleveland and Pittsburgh.
Source: Wendy J. Adkins, author of "Penn & amp; Ohio"