Pennsylvania and Ohio Canal

The Pennsylvania and Ohio Canal, also known as the P & O Canal, the Cross Cut Canal and the Mahoning Canal was a shipping canal which operated from 1840 until 1877 (though the canal was completely abandoned by 1872). It was unique in that it served to connect canals in two states (the Ohio and Erie Canal in Ohio and the Beaver and Erie Canal in Pennsylvania) and was funded by private interests.

History

In Warren, Ohio at a convention held on November 13, 1833, 109 delegates decided to privately fund the Pennsylvania and Ohio Canal [ [http://www.prrths.com/Hagley/PRR1833%20June%2004.wd.pdf Pennsylvania Railroad Chronology] June 2004] as neither state felt they should spend money on a canal that led to another state. Construction began on September 17, 1835 when the two engineers of the canal struck iron stakes in the ground at the center of what was known as the "Portage Summit" between what is now Kent, Ohio and Ravenna. Workers manually dug the 82 miles of the P & O using picks, shovels, and wheelbarrows. It ran from New Castle, Pennsylvania to Akron Ohio, meeting the Ohio and Erie Canal in downtown Akron. [http://www.geocities.com/heartland/prairie/6687/pennohio.htm P & O Canal history article] ] [ [http://www.akronhistory.org/ehman%20p&o.htm Ehmann P&O ] ] It ran along old Native American trails and the Cuyahoga and Mahoning Rivers. In Northeast Ohio, Lake Pippen and Brady Lake were water sources for the canal. [http://www.kentohio.net/history/index.html Kent, Ohio history article] ] Large celebrations occurred along the canal's route when it officially opened on August 4, 1840. [http://www.smfpl.org/canal.htm P & O Canal history article from the Stow-Monroe Falls Library] ]

Impact

in Ohio.

Closing

With the arrival and expansion of railroads, the canal gradually diminished. All sections of the canal were abandoned by 1872 and the canal was officially closed in 1877 and all remaining property was sold off. Today, traces of the canal's bed remain in many areas of Northeast Ohio including Munroe Falls, Ohio and downtown Kent, Ohio, where the Cuyahoga River runs through the former canal lock. A P & O Canal aqueduct remains in southern Kent over Plum Creek just south of the Cuyahoga River.

ee also

*List of canals in the United States
*Ohio and Erie Canal

References

External links

* [http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=791 Ohio Historical Society article on the P & O Canal]