Secrets of the James

The James River and Kanawha Canal

by Gabe Silver, Environmental Educator

From 1785 to 1851 a grand project was undertaken along the James River. The construction of the James River Kanawha Canal, long-championed by George Washington as an essential endeavor for our young nation and particularly the state of Virginia, aimed to connect the Atlantic Ocean with the Mississippi River. The ambitious canal was to bridge the Blue Ridge and Allegheny Mountains following the James River until it cut towards Charleston (West Virginia) and a tributary of the Ohio called the Kanawha River.

Much of the labor of backbreaking digging the canal was carried out by slaves who were rented to the James River and Kanawha Company. The work consisted of long hours knee-deep in muck, suffering the heat, cold and disease and given few if any comforts. The canal company gave up on using Irish immigrants who, no strangers themselves to difficult labor, went out on strike to protest the awful working conditions. Literelly, three generations of African-American slaves hefted a pick-axe in the counstruction of Washington's dream.

Despite the thousands of lives and millions of dollars devoted to the canal, the coming of the Civil War and ultimately the superior efficiency of the railroad spelled its destruction. By the end of the 1870s, the canal route had been sold to the Richmond and Allegheny Railroad Company who laid its track on the canal towpath. Today, CSX trains rumble along where mules and packet-boats once reigned.

Today, you may find the canal’s legacy in the landscape of the James. Beginning with Great Shiplock Park (part of the James River Park System in Richmond), where the canal connected to the tidal James River, and working west all the way to the half-built piers and arches of the never-finished section of the canal between Buchanan and Eagle Rock, a modern-day explorer is easily and often awed by the enduring stonework that stands testament to the past. Great places to see the canal also include Pumphouse Park in Richmond, and on many stretches of the James River anywhere between Richmond and Buchanan. Look for stone piers and bridges supporting current rail lines over the main-stem James and its tributaries: most of these originally carried the canal, and were built so well they can still support hundreds of tons of payload.
Indispensible in your search for history will be Dr. Bill Trout’s amazing atlases of the James available at http://vacanals.org/store.

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