Augusta Canal
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Historic Augusta Canal and Industrial District
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Augusta Canal
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| Location | Augusta, Georgia / Columbia County, Georgia |
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| Coordinates | 33°30′08″N 81°59′57″W / 33.50222°N 81.99917°WCoordinates: 33°30′08″N 81°59′57″W / 33.50222°N 81.99917°W |
| Area | 225 acres (91 ha) |
| Built | 1845 |
| Architect | Multiple |
| Architectural style | Romanesque |
| NRHP Reference # | 71000285 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | May 27, 1971 |
| Designated NHLD | December 22, 1977 |
The Augusta Canal is a historic canal located in Augusta, Georgia, United States. The canal is fed by the Savannah River and passes through three levels (approximately 13 miles total) in suburban and urban Augusta before the water returns to the river at various locations. It was devised to harness the water power at the fall line of the Savannah River to drive mills, to provide transportation of goods, and to provide a municipal water supply. It is the only canal in the US in continuous use for its original purposes of providing power, transport and municipal water.
The Augusta Canal was chartered in 1845 and initially completed in 1847, as a source of water, power and transportation for the city of Augusta. It was one of the few successful industrial canals in the American South. During the time of construction, the city's Canal Commission was headed by Henry Cumming. Cumming personally paid railroad engineerJ. Edgar Thomson to conduct the initial survey for the project. In 1847 construction began on the first factory, a saw and grist mill at the present site of Enterprise Mill. The Augusta Manufacturing Company, a sprawling four-story textile "manufactory", soon followed. They would be the first of many factories built along the Augusta Canal.
By the time of the Civil War, Augusta was one of the few manufacturing centers in the South. The power and water transportation afforded by the canal among the factors that led Confederate Col. George W. Rains to select Augusta as the location for the Confederate Powder Works. The twenty-eight buildings, which were the only ones designed, constructed and paid for by the government of the Confederate States of America, stretched for two miles along the Augusta Canal. Other war industries establish along or near the canal, making Augusta an important center for materiel.
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