Pennsylvania Canal

Pennsylvania Canal
Map of the Pennsylvania Canal's connecting railroads in Pennsylvania
Specifications
Status	Abandoned except for historic and recreational segments and navigable rivers
History
Original owner	Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
Construction began	1826
Date completed	~1840
Date closed	~1900
Geography
Start point	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
End point	Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.

The Pennsylvania Canal, sometimes known as the Pennsylvania Canal system, was a complex system of transportation infrastructure improvements, including canals, dams, locks, tow paths, aqueducts, and viaducts. The canal was constructed and assembled over several decades beginning in 1824, the year of the first enabling act and budget items.^{[notes 1]}

Enacted while railroads were in their infancy, the Pennsylvania Canal was designed to create a canal system that was capable of carrying heavy ships carrying bulk goods, connecting the major metropolitan cities of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and reaching the new growth markets in the developing Northwest Territory over the Ohio River, now known as the Midwestern United States.^{[notes 2]}

The Pennsylvania Canal was updated in 1837 to reflect the experience of twelve years of toddler-railways,^{[notes 3]} The term was also applied to railroads and new canals to be added to the state transportation system.^[1] The Main Line of Public Works and the Pennsylvania Canal system topped 2,100 feet (640 m) in elevation by erecting the Allegheny Portage Railroad, which used a system of five inclines and five planes on each side of the Eastern Continental Divide at Cresson Pass in Cambria County to actually haul wheeled flat cars, which had halved canal boats placed on them, up and over the Allegheny Front and connect Pittsburgh to the Susquehanna River. When finished in 1834, the trip from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh could be made in three to five days, weather conditions depending.

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