Chesapeake and Ohio Canal

In the beginning

• George Washington proposed a canal to circumvent 5 spots on the Potomac TO THE VA. HOUSE OF BURGESSES!

• Eventually as President he saw construction begin through the Potowmack Canal Company

• 1820 the Potowmack Canal company becomes the Chesapeake and Ohio Company

• Lift lock system was used

• Officially construction began in 1828 under C & O company

In the middle

• Under JQA the Federal, State and Local governemnts supported the C & O Canal co.

• Hope was to increase employment in the region

• Trouble was that there was a labor shortage (where were the immigrants?)

• Legal battles ensued over right to land

• Inflation made labor expensive

At the end

• Trade did increase – 850,000 #s per year on the canal

• Coal, flour, grain main freight

• The region was enriched

• Did increase employment

• Water flowing through the canal provided energy to mills, factories and textile companies in the region

• Eventually replaced by the Railroads

Consider the Construction of the Canal:

If the canal were being constructed today, what machines would have been helpful? On which jobs would they have been used?

Engineers designed the canal to give lockkeepers as much control over the river as they could. What do you think each of the following elements did, given their names and locations?a) feeder dams (11)?b) guard locks (12)?c) waste weirs (16)?d) stop locks (17)?

What information from the chapter helps you place the canal system in the American Industrial Revolution of the 1820s – 1860s?

Four Points: a small town in which four locks were built to compensate for a sharp curve in the river. This becomes a town with several stores and even a school house. You are viewing the lock house.

Consider the economic and social impact of the canal

Why might a store at Four Locks attract a lot of business? In other words, why might a family be more likely to shop there than at a store near just one lock?

Why would a school be located in such a remote area?

What information from the chapter helps you place the canal system in the American Industrial Revolution of the 1820s – 1860s?

A Canal Boat FamilyNote the chains tethering the children

Consider Social ClassWhat do you think it would

have been like to grow up on a canal boat?

What would have been the good parts?

What would have been the bad ones?

How would daily life have been different from your life today?

What information from the chapter helps you place the canal system in the American Industrial Revolution of the 1820s – 1860s?

• Canals or Railroads?It is July 4, 1828, at Little Falls, Maryland. President John Quincy Adams will shovel earth to signal construction of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. In Baltimore, Maryland, Charles Carroll will break ground for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Both gentlemen have the same goal of reaching the Ohio River Valley for trade. TASK: DEFEND INVESTING IN A CANAL