C&D Canal Milestones
By the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE)
Mid-1600s -- Augustine Herman, a Dutch envoy and mapmaker, observed that two large bodies of water, the
Delaware River and Chesapeake Bay, were separated only by a narrow strip of land. Herman proposed that a
waterway be built to connect the two, since the canal would reduce, by nearly 300 miles, the water routes
between Philadelphia and Baltimore.
Mid 1760s -- Surveys of possible water routes across the Delaware / Maryland Peninsula were performed.
1788 -- Regional business leaders, including Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Rush, raise the issue of
constructing the waterway.
1802 -- The Chesapeake and Delaware Canal Company was incorporated. More surveys followed.
1804 -- Construction of the canal began, including 14 locks to connect the Christina River in Delaware with
the Elk River at Welch Point, Md. The project was halted two years later for lack of funds.
1822 -- The canal company was reorganized.
1823 and 1824 -- Two senior US ACE commissioned officer engineers assist civilian engineers in determining
a canal route, and recommended a new route with four locks, extending from Newbold's Landing Harbor (now
Delaware City, Del.), westward to the Back Creek branch of the Elk River in Maryland.
April 1824 -- Construction resumes, with about 2,600 men digging with pick and shovel, and hauling dirt from
the ditch.
1829 -- C & D Canal Company announces that the waterway is open for business. The construction cost was
almost $2.5 million, one of the most expensive canal projects of its era.
1829 to 1919 -- C & D Canal operational, with Chesapeake Bay and Delaware River connected by a
navigation channel measuring nearly 14 miles long, 10 feet deep, 66 feet wide at the waterline and 36 feet
wide along the channel bottom. A covered wooden bridge at Summit, Del., spanned the canal across the "Deep
Cut," with a 250-foot-long span over the waterway. The bottom of the bridge was 90 feet above the channel
bottom. Three other wooden swing bridges also crossed the canal. The 4 canal locks were at Delaware City,
St. Georges, Del., and two at Chesapeake City, Md. The dimension of each lock was 100 feet long and 22 feet
wide, and they were eventually enlarged to 220 feet in length and 24 feet in width. Teams of mules and horses
towed the watergoing vessels the canal.
1919 -- Canal purchased by the Federal government for $2.5 million and designated the "Intra-coastal
Waterway - Delaware River to Chesapeake Bay, Delaware and Maryland". The canal infrastructure included
six road bridges plus a railroad bridge owned by the Pennsylvania Railroad. These bridges were replaced
during the 1920s by four vertical lift-span bridges and a new railroad bridge.
1927 -- A set of upgrade projects was completed that year. The eastern canal entrance at Delaware City was
relocated several miles south to Reedy Point, Del. The canal trench was excavated so that the waterway was
converted to a sea-level operation, with the trench 12 feet deep and 90 feet wide. These upgrades cost $10
million.
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1933 -- US ACE Philadelphia District takes over operation of the canal.
1935 to 1938 -- Canal channel excavated to be deepened to 27 feet and widened to 250 feet, and the project
cost nearly $13 million. Another project to provide same-draft access to the C & D Canal from Chesapeake
Bay, expanded a federal navigation channel to 27 feet deep and 400 feet wide for 26 miles.
1940s -- The two vertical liftspan road bridges at St. Georges and Chesapeake City, were knocked down by
ship collisions, and were replaced with high-level bridges.
1954 -- U.S. Congress authorizes further expansion of the canal channel to 450 feet wide and 35 feet deep.
The upper Chesapeake Bay dredged channel was also deepened to 35 feet deep. These improvements began in
the 1960s and were completed in the mid-1970s.
1960 -- Summit Bridge completed, a high-level road traffic bridge over the canal.
1966 -- New railroad lift bridge over the canal completed by US ACE and transferred to the Pennsylvania
Railroad to carry freight across the canal.
1968 -- Reedy Point Bridge completed, a high-level road traffic bridge over the canal.
1960s to the mid-1970s -- Construction projects expand the canal channel to 450 feet wide and 35 feet deep.
The upper Chesapeake Bay dredged channel was also deepened to 35 feet deep.
The US ACE completed a study in 1996 for a channel deepening project to 40 feet of water depth, and that
would include not only the C & D Canal itself but also 36 miles of channel deepening for the dredged shipping
channel in the upper Chesapeake Bay that connects to the C & D Canal. Both the canal and the Bay channel
are currently 35 feet deep (channel depths are measured below the average low tide water level). As of 2004,
two major factors have stalled the channel deepening projects; the recent downturn in the economy of the Port
of Baltimore has reduced the economic need somewhat, and there are major environmental impacts to the Bay
that would be caused by the dredging, and there is not sufficient consensus among the various stakeholders as
to whether the costs (the financial construction costs plus the costs to the natural environment) of the projects
are acceptable when compared to the economic benefits of the projects. Also, oceangoing ships with up to 40
feet of draft (depth below the waterline) can utilize the lower Chesapeake Bay to access the Port of Baltimore,
since 40 feet is the ruling depth of the dredged channels that are along that route (much of that route is through
water that is naturally deeper than 40 feet).
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