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Pennsylvania Main Line Canal

Main Line of Public Works
A network of east-west canals and connecting railroads spanned Pennsylvania from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh. North-south canals connecting with this east-west canal ran between West Virginia and Lake Erie on the west, Maryland and New York in the center, and along the border with Delaware and New Jersey on the east. Many shorter canals connected cities such as York, Port Carbon, and Franklin to the larger network.
Map of historic Pennsylvania canals and connecting railroads
Specifications
Locks 168
(The Eastern Division Canal had 14 locks, the Juniata Division 86, and the Western Division 68.)
Maximum height above sea level 2,322 ft (708 m)
(Summit of the Allegheny Portage Railroad through Blair Gap)
Status Canals abandoned except for historic and recreational segments. Many railroad segments survive as part of the Keystone Corridor.
History
Original owner Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
Date of act 1826
Construction began 1828
Date completed 1834
Date closed Sold to Pennsylvania Railroad in 1857; last canal segment, near Harrisburg, closed in 1901
Geography
Start point Philadelphia
End point Pittsburgh
Branch(es) Wiconisco Canal, Kittanning Feeder, Allegheny Outlet
Branch of Pennsylvania Canal
Connects to Delaware River, Schuylkill Canal, Conestoga Navigation, Susquehanna and Tidewater Canal, Codorus Navigation, Union Canal, Susquehanna Division, Allegheny River, Monongahela River, Ohio River, Ashley Planes, Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad, Lehigh Canal & Delaware Canal
Pennsylvania Main Line Canal, Juniata Division, Canal Section
Pennsylvania Main Line Canal Juniata Division Apr 10.JPG
Pennsylvania Main Line Canal, Juniata Division, April 2010
Main Line of Public Works is located in Pennsylvania
Main Line of Public Works
Location 1.5 mi. section of canal bet. PA RR Main Line and Juniata River, Granville Township, Pennsylvania
Area 13.6 acres (5.5 ha)
Built 1830
Built by Clinton, DeWitt Jr.
Architect Clinton, DeWitt Jr.
Architectural style Other, Canal
NRHP Reference # 02000069
Added to NRHP February 20, 2002
Western Division-Pennsylvania Canal
Main Line of Public Works is located in Pennsylvania
Main Line of Public Works
Location Along the Conemaugh River, Bolivar, Derry Township, and Fairfield Township
Area 15 acres (6.1 ha)
Built 1830
Built by Pennsylvania Canal Commission
NRHP Reference # 74001817
Added to NRHP September 17, 1974
Western Division of the PA Canal
Main Line of Public Works is located in Pennsylvania
Main Line of Public Works
Location Along the Conemaugh River, Bell, Derry, and Loyalhanna Townships
Area 15 acres (6.1 ha)
Built 1830
Built by White, Canvas; Geddes, James
NRHP Reference # 82001537
Added to NRHP November 14, 1982

The Main Line of Public Works was a package of legislation supporting a vision passed in 1826 — a collection of various long proposed canal and road projects that became a canal system (1824 proposals and studies) and later added railroads (amendments in 1828) designed to cross the breadth of Pennsylvania (mainly, southern) with the visionary goal of providing the best commercial means of transportation between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Built between 1826 and 1834 by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, it established the Pennsylvania Canal System, the Allegheny Portage Railroad, and the Pennsylvania Canal System administrated under a new Commission.

Later amendments substituted a new technology, railroads in place of the 82 miles (132 km) canal that had been planned on the right-of-way of the substitute: the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad (P&CRR), a new technology, for an envisioned canal link connecting the Delaware River (Philadelphia) to the Susquehanna River that would have proved too costly.

Trans-Appalachian settlement had begun in earnest during the latter years of the French and Indian War (1754-1763, arguably a World War), and the British post-war Governments side agreements, primarily made with the Iroquois Confederacy caused the policy curbing expanded settlement in the colonial mid-west was one cause that created support for the American Revolution (a casus belli, and not just along the American frontiers for those hoping to emigrate into the nearly empty Amerindian lands of the Ohio Country, for the American families were prone to have large families, and Eastern seaboard populations were blooming in the pre-industrialized predominantly Agricultural culture).


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