Hampshire and Hampden Canal

The Hampshire and Hampden Canal was the Massachusetts segment of an 86-mile (138 km) canal that once connected New Haven, Connecticut to the Connecticut River north of Northampton, Massachusetts. Its Connecticut segment was called the Farmington Canal.

The canal dates to 1821 when New Haven businessmen began to raise capital and investigate a possible canal route from their harbor to central Massachusetts, and on to Barnet, Vermont and Canada beyond. In this original vision, the canal would pass through Farmington, Connecticut to the border at Southwick, Massachusetts, then join the Connecticut River near Northampton, and from there continue to the St. Lawrence River through Lake Memphremagog and the valley of the St. Francis River. Two side canals were also envisioned: one running from Farmington through Unionville, Connecticut to Colebrook, Connecticut; the other linking to the Erie Canal via the Hudson River or the proposed (but never built) Boston and Albany Canal.

Benjamin Wright, the Erie Canal's chief engineer, was hired to conduct a preliminary survey from New Haven to Southwick, Massachusetts. In 1822 he gave a positive report: "The terrain is favorably formed for a great work of this kind and a canal may be formed for considerable less expense per mile, than the cost of canals now in the making in the state of New York." That same year, the Connecticut legislature granted a charter to the Farmington Canal Company, and on February 4, 1823, Massachusetts granted its corresponding charter to the Hampshire & Hampden Canal Company. After this second charter was granted, work began.

...
Wikipedia