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Canals
Picture it, you're walking down the streets of Richmond during the day, you come to N. 18th street and you see the start of the "Canal Walk."As you start to walk from the street you come to a beautifully landscaped area, and all over the place are larger than life size pictures of people that you are not sure you even know who they are.You look farther, and there are even more pictures.You realize that you would like to know who all these people are.
That is what I thought the first time that I ever visited the "Canal Walk."I started off going there aboutyears ago.It started as just a venture.Then I saw Brown's Island and walked a little further over the footbridge and came to Belles Isle.I imagine the people who must have been here hundreds of years ago, and wonder more about them. I am doing this paper to find out and understand more about the historic aspects of canals.My main focus is on the James River and Kanawha Canal.
It is said by many that the canals were built by slave labor.There is a lot of heritage that comes to African Americans by means of the canals.The plantation owners in Richmond thought that it was a good idea to "rent" out their slaves to the James River and Kanawha Company.The company gladly accepted the slaves because of the conditions in Richmond.The slaves in Richmond were use to the conditions and were immune to a majority of the diseases that were floating around.They didn't have to worry about setting wages or worry about finding the slave's suitable lodging.If the company had of hired immigrants, they would have to have worried about them getting sick, or even causing uproar when it came to salaries and lodging.
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Canals were formed for not only means of transportation, but as means of entertainment, leisure, and shipping.Ideas for the canals were brought from Europe. The ideas for the canal were imagined by George Washington as a link to the West.George Washington was the designer of the famous James River and Kanawha Canal.
1"The James River Company was formed with George Washington as honorary president in 1785. Development of the James River and Kanawha Canal began and the cornerstone of the State Capitol, designed by Thomas Jefferson, was laid both in downtown Richmond."
In 18, the old James River Company became the James River and Kanawha Company.It was chosen to do the last link between the Ohio River and the tidewater of the James by canal and roadway. "Joseph Carrington Cabell was president of the company for its first twelve years and was known as the Father of the James River and Kanawha Canal. Four years later the initial financing was completed and work on the new canal was started from Maidens Adventure to Lynchburg. Eight years later the canal was completed to Lynchburg in the fall of 1840." There was a great celebration when the first canal boat, the General Harrison, arrived loaded with passengers and products from Richmond. The excitement was so extreme that the speaker of the day fell off his platform on the boat into the canal.
Hundreds of boats of different sizes were moved over to the completed canal to be pulled along its path by hand, mules or horses. In addition to a number of bateaux, there were also two major types of boats plied the canal huge wooden freighters up to fourteen and a half feet wide and ninety three feet long that could carry a load, on average, of 60 tons; and the more efficient packet boats, at least six of them had iron hulls.
It took ten more years for the James River and Kanawha Canal to reach Buchanan, and cost over $8,000,000. The first packet boat, the John Early, left Lynchburg for Buchanan on November 11, 1851. A newly built hotel was the site for celebrations with dancing until daylight. Buchanan gave promise of becoming the metropolis of southwest. In just one year, it had become a prosperous community and its financial future seemed to be secure.
The forward flow of the railroads caused the James River and Kanawha Canal to slowly fade out of the picture. The expensive waterway, the dream of George Washington had moved to the new, faster railroad. Badly worn out during the Civil War and almost wrecked by a severe flood in 1877, its passenger packet boats and freight boats made their last trips in 1880. George W. Bagby wrote in The Old Virginia Gentleman and other Sketches, If the James River does not behave better hereafter than it has done of late, the railroad will have to be suspended in mid-heavens by means of a series of stationery balloons; traveling, then may be a little wobbly, but in all events, it wont be wet.
By March of 1861 and for the next four years, Virginia was the main location for hostilities during the "War between the States." The canal would again see a familiar use. As railroad lines were being destroyed by the opposing armies, canals were again used as fast, flexible military supply carriers that could travel down the rivers.Most central Virginia and the northern valley of Virginia had been devastated in the fighting, and Richmond had been nearly destroyed.
4"In March 1865 Sheridan's Calvary entered Scottsville west of Richmond and began destroying the waterway.For a week they passed up and down the canal causing damage on the works of the time, coming within 0 miles of Richmond."In early April 1865, Federal troops arrived in the city and found it evacuated and practically destroyed by fire.Much of the city's white population fled the city, but before leaving, the Confederate army set fire to warehouses along the riverfront to keep their contents out of the Union hands.4"Over two hundred homes and business were destroyed.Including the offices of the James River and Kanawha Canal Company.Only the most valuable books and papers were saved by the company."On April 4th, President Lincoln entered the city proud.Ten days later Robert E. Lee rode into the city in defeat, on his way home.
Not much is known about the earlier history about the canal, after 1865 that is, but we did discover in 18, during a difficult excavation of the CSX rail yard for what is now the James Center in Richmond, the Virginia Canals and Navigations Society excavated remains of bateaux's. Excavation would be put on hold for up two weeks as volunteers from the Virginia Canals and Navigations Society and the Archeological Society of Virginia ventured down the muddy hill to document the findings. What they found from the depths were sixty-three sunken canal boats, most of them bateaux, which were sunk 150 years earlier in what was then the turning basin for the Kanawha Canal. Complete bateaux skeletons were taken from their watery grave and stored for further research. Drawings and measurements of others were recorded. This was the first time, in this century, that there was enough detail to actually build a bateau.
Restoration of the canals was completed in 1, and since then, the canals have been considered a historical landmark.There have been many preservation societies created to save the canals.As there are many canals up and down the east coast, there are equal as many societies to help support them.The canals that we know today are used for walking and leisure, and to learn history.
A lot people tend to forget that the canals have many historical aspects that helped Richmond to become what it is today.A lot of businesses and factories would not be here, nor would there be remnants here of those old business for which we sometimes ponder about there history.I am fortunate enough to have seen a lot of "behind the scenes" stuff from the canal walks, and in fact I believe that I had seen some of the "original" canal from going behind the buildings.
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