Ohio &

The route for the Ohio & Erie Canal was finally agreed upon after several years of surveys and reports to the Ohio General Assembly. It would run from Cleveland, Ohio on Lake Erie through the heart of Ohio to Portsmouth on the Ohio River and would be the main thrust of canal building throughout Ohio. Another proposed route would eventually become the Miami & Erie Canal.

John Jacob Astor, a very wealthy business man of the era, invested $1,000.000 ($600,000 taken in bonds payable after 1850) in the Ohio & Erie Canal System.
The Ohio Canal system was officially begun when the first spadeful of soil was moved on July 4, 1825 at what would be the Licking Summit. Commissioners had decided to built the canal in sections beginning with the northern section and continuing southward thus opening up Ohio to the markets of the east immediately upon the opening of each section. The first section, from Cleveland to Akron opened in 1827, from Akron to Massillon in 1828, from Massillon to Dover in 1829, from Dover to Newark in 1830, from Newark to Chillicothe in 1831 and from Chillicothe to Portsmouth in 1832. The total cost was around $4,695,000. There was great competition for canal business and many towns petitioned the Assembly and even agreed to pay to have the canal run through or close to their communities. The village of Cleveland donated $5,000 to the Canal Fund and the canal was extended down the Cuyahoga River to terminate there. Not every town that wanted to be on the canal was granted their petition. New Philadelphia, after much time, effort and money was put into seeing if a route incorporating the town was economically and physically viable, was denied their request. State owned and funded, but built by private enterprise the canal was 308 miles long with 149 lift locks, 7 guard locks with a total rise of 1,206 feet. Rising to the Licking Summit 793 feet from Lake Erie and falling 413 feet to the Ohio River.

Canal Route

The canal opened from Akron to Cleveland in 1827. This was particularly due to public demand because at the time of the official opening of the canal on July 4, 1827 the canal was far from prepared to accept heavy traffic. None of the feeder dams were complete and therefore there was a constant shortage of water well into 1828. Even with these problems and delays in travelling the canal when the canal closed for the winter season in 1827 over 1800 tons of freight had made the trip between Akron and Cleveland. Until 1870 when the canal closed the area between Akron and Cleveland was lined with warehouses, taverns, dry docks and canal business'.

The interchange between canal traffic and lake traffic took place in a basin at the junction with the Cuyahoga River. The connection was delayed for two years because of the exceptionally high water in Lake Erie. Not to be deterred, Noble Merwin, wanting to take part in the opening ceremonies had the packet boat "Pioneer" hauled over the river bank and into the canal and then proceeded up the canal to meet Governor Trimble. Eventually the locks and basin were finished. The basin was 150 feet wide and extended about 200 feet from guard lock # 44 to lock # 43. These locks, often referred to as "sloop" locks, were larger than standard (25 feet wide X 100 feet long) in order to allow for passage of the lake traffic, and the canal traffic to take harbor in Merwins Basin when the weather on the Lake was rough and to go above Lock # 43 for repairs in the three dry docks there. A weigh lock was also located here to assess the tolls on boats travelling the canal.

From here the canal would use 42 locks, 16 of which were within a 1 1/2 mile stretch in Akron, to traverse the 389 1/2 feet of the Cuyahoga slope to the Portage Summit at Akron. There were three aqueducts in this section, one at Peninsula carried the canal from the east to the west bank of the Cuyahoga River. Ten miles from here the canal left the Cuyahoga and followed the Little Cuyahoga. It was 38 miles from Cleveland to the Portage Summit. The Summit was nine miles long and passed through a naturally wet area. This was one of the main factors in the decision to route the canal through this area as it was felt that there would be less trouble with the water supply. This would be called Summit Lake. the level of the lake was dropped to make a slackwater area. The biggest problem in this area was the construction of the towpath. Attempts to build one along the eastern shore of the lake failed. Eventually a floating towpath was built across a portion of the lake.

The next section started with the Tuscarawas slope and traveled on the west bank of the river until it crossed Wolf Creek on a dam, where it remained on the west side until it crossed to the east bank of the Tuscarawas at Clinton. It remained on this side of the river for the next 28 miles then crossed on the Tuscarawas Aqueduct back to the west bank just above Bolivar. Bolivar is where the Sandy and Beaver Canal would join the Ohio & Erie Canal. The canal continued for another 57 miles before it reached the confluence of the Tuscarawas and Walhonding Rivers, forming the Muskingham River. The Walhonding River was crossed on a triple span aqueduct. Part of the southern abutment of the aqueduct was part of a double lock system that lowered the canal to the Roscoe Basin. For 14 miles the canal followed the Muskingham to Webbsport. This is the lowest level between the Portage and Licking Summits. From here the canal followed the Wakatomaka River for 9 miles then ascended through a gap in the divide to the Licking River and on to the Licking Summit. This was 32 miles with 19 locks taking the canal in a lift of 160 feet. One of the most impressive and unique features of the Ohio & Erie Canal is through this area. With the Licking passing through a narrow valley there was little or no room for a canal therefore, the engineers dammed the river creating a slackwater area and a towpath had to be blasted from the face of a shear cliff wall.
The Licking Summit was 14 miles long. A "feeder" canal, the Granville Feeder, was built to provide water to this area. A reservoir, the Licking Reservoir (now Buckeye Lake) was also built to keep the summit well supplied with water. In order to bring the summit to a level where it could benefit best from the reservoir a "Deep Cut" was dug at a length of three miles and a depth in the center of 34 feet. From the summit the canal began a descent to the south along Walnut Creek for 18 miles.The canal eventually followed the Big Belly to Lockbourne just above the Scioto River. By now the canal had covered another 30 miles dropping 202 feet which was managed by 30 locks.

The final or southern section of the canal ran from Lockbourne to Portsmouth on the Ohio River. The first 15 miles ran along the Scioto. At Circleville the canal crossed the river on an aqueduct whose western abutment was part of a lock here with a 9 1/2 foot lift. The canal crossed a series of rivers and streams using aqueducts and culverts. This section was 87 miles long with 24 locks that lowered the canal 211 feet. An outlet lock allowed the canal to empty into the Ohio River.

The southern terminus of the Ohio & Erie Canal was at Portsmouth. It had originally been presumed that canal boats would pass into the Ohio River and be towed to Pittsburgh to exchange cargoes with or continue on the Pennsylvania Mainline Canal. This never truly materialized. This southern termination was in the mouth of the Scioto River which put it in jeopardy of continual flooding from both the Scioto and Ohio Rivers or even both. The canal terminus was therefore rerouted to terminate on the west bank of the Scioto. This site was not very favorable to Portsmouth, now on the opposite side of the River. Several plans were tried to bring canal business to the east side of the river, including a toll bridge erected in 1832. This bridge however was destroyed by fire soon after it opened. There were continued attempts to build a branch canal to bring business to Portsmouth. However, by 1850 all ideas were abandoned in favor of maintaining, repairing and improving the existing canal and industry on the west bank. Eventually the lower locks became clogged and damaged by floods bringing silt from the Ohio River. In 1886 L & H Wishon were given the contract to build a new terminus. This contract called for the canal to be extended from "elbow" lock along the old bed of the Scioto River to the Ohio. Called the "New Termination" it was finished in 1887. Inspite of all efforts to solve the problems in this area of the canal, the profitability of the canal below Circleville was in steady decline from 1851 and consequently when in 1904 the proposal was made to reconstruct and reuse the canal the section of canal south of Circleville was not included and abandonment suggested.

As originally constructed the Ohio & Erie Canal was 308 miles long and used 146 locks to lift and drop the canal 1,207 feet. It used 5 guard locks, 203 culverts, 14 aqueducts and 8 slackpools and dams. Additionally there were 6 dams used to create the slackwater pools. Before the completion of the canal trade across the state was toward the south. Upon the completion of the canal this changed with trade taking a turn toward the east and the vastly better markets of the eastern seaboard.

In the life of the canal some aqueducts were replaced by culverts, some slackwater stream crossings were replaced with aqueducts. A water supply was added at Massillon making it necessary to build a new lock ( # 5A). Later this lock would be torn out and moved south to allow a stream to pass under the canal. This lock would be called " New Lock 5A".

By 1861, after the destructive floods of 1860 and a great expenditure to repair the damage and make the canal functional, the State decided to lease the canal to a private group of six Ohioans for 10 years. In 1871 the lease was renewed for another 10 years but let to terminate in 1878 when the state took back control. The private group was required by the lease to maintain the canals as they were when possession was taken, however, they did very little if any maintenance on the canal and many areas of the canal were impassable and would remain that way due to decay and a lack of funding to restore the whole canal to operational condition. In 1904 the Assembly appropriated $200,000 for rebuilding the canals. Through 1909 a total of $790,000 was appropriated for canal repair. All the locks on the northern section to Lock # 16 at Trenton and the three locks that lowered the canal to the Muskinghum River were rebuilt or repaired with concrete. An estimate for an additional $590,000 was made in 1909. However, by this time the public was disenchanted with the canals and were more in favor of the railroad and developing road system that the legislature refused to appropriate any more money. By 1911 most of the southern part of the Ohio & Erie Canal was completely abandoned. The final, fatal blow to the Ohio & Erie Canal and the Ohio Canals in general came in 1913 when there were once again major floods. These floods destroyed dams and stopped any repairs to the canal. Many areas of the canal were almost completely destroyed by the floods. After this time the canal was not used at all for long distance hauling of freight. Some areas were used for local traffic and pleasure into the 1920's when practically all interest in the canals had ceased.

Some of the towns that the Ohio & Erie canal passed through expanded greatly during the years of canal business. Some of the towns along the canal were, Cleveland, Akron, Clinton, Canal Fulton, Navarre, Bolivar, Dover, Midvale, Coschocton, Dresden, Newark, Canal Winchester, Lockbourne, Circleville, Chillicothe, and Portsmouth.