- This page was last modified on 17 June 2025, at 17:52. Suggest an edit.
Chesapeake & Delaware Canal facts for kids
The Chesapeake & Delaware Canal (often called the C&D Canal) is a special waterway that connects two big bodies of water: the Delaware River and the Chesapeake Bay. It's about 14 miles (22.5 km) long, 450 feet (137 m) wide, and 35 feet (10.7 m) deep. This important ship canal runs through parts of Delaware and Maryland in the United States.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers owns and runs the C&D Canal. Their main office is in Chesapeake City, Maryland. Here, you can also find the C&D Canal Museum and the Bethel Bridge Lighthouse. The canal is super helpful because it cuts down travel time by about 300 miles (480 km) for ships going between cities like Wilmington and Baltimore, or Philadelphia and Baltimore. It helps them avoid sailing all the way around the lower part of the Delmarva Peninsula.
In Delaware, the canal is a well-known landmark. Many people see it as a line between the busy northern part of the state and the quieter, rural southern part. It also marks the unofficial northern edge of the Delmarva Peninsula.
Contents
Building the Canal: The Early Ideas
People started thinking about connecting the Delaware River and Chesapeake Bay a long time ago. In the mid-1600s, a mapmaker named Augustine Herman noticed how close these two big waters were. He thought it would be a great idea to build a waterway between them.
It took over a century for anyone to act on this idea. In 1764, people started surveying the land to find the best path for a canal. A Quaker from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, named Thomas Gilpin, Sr., was very interested. He and others from the American Philosophical Society wanted a canal to make shipping shorter from the Chesapeake Bay to Philadelphia. He even bought land for it, but the canal wouldn't be built for many more years.
The idea came up again in 1788. Important business leaders, including Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Rush, supported it. They knew a canal would save ships nearly 300 miles (500 km) on trips between Philadelphia and Baltimore.
In 1802, the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal Company was officially started. Joseph Tatnall, a merchant, became its president. More surveys were done, and in 1804, construction finally began. Benjamin Henry Latrobe led the work. The plan included 14 locks to connect the Christina River in Delaware with the Elk River in Maryland. But after two years, the project stopped because they ran out of money.
Digging the Ditch: Construction Begins
The canal company got back on track in 1822. New studies showed they needed over $2 million to start building again. The states of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware bought shares in the company. The U.S. government also invested a lot of money, and the public bought the rest of the shares.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers helped a lot in 1823 and 1824. They sent two experienced officers to help decide the best route for the canal. These officers and two other engineers suggested a new path. This route would have four locks and stretch from Newbold's Landing Harbor (now Delaware City) to the Back Creek branch of the Elk River in Maryland.
Building the canal started again in April 1824. Soon, about 2,600 men were digging and moving dirt. They worked with picks and shovels, earning about 75 cents a day. The swampy land along the route made the work very hard. Workers constantly fought against the soft ground sliding into the "ditch." Finally, in 1829, the C&D Canal Company announced the waterway was "open for business"! It cost $3.5 million to build, making it one of the most expensive canal projects of its time.
In 1825, the company fired their chief engineer, John Randel Jr., who had planned the route and built a tough eastern section. Randel sued the company and won a huge amount of money in 1834. This award almost made the company go bankrupt!
The Canal in Action: 1829 to 1919
|
Eastern Lock of the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal
|
|
Eastern Lock of the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal, Battery Park, December 2011
|
|
| Location | Battery Park, Delaware City, Delaware |
|---|---|
| Built | 1829 |
| NRHP reference No. | 75000543 |
| Added to NRHP | April 21, 1975 |
Now, the Chesapeake Bay and Delaware River were connected! The canal was nearly 14 miles (22.5 km) long, 10 feet (3 m) deep, and 66 feet (20 m) wide at the top. A covered wooden bridge at Summit, Delaware, crossed the canal. Three other wooden swing bridges also crossed the waterway. Locks were built at Delaware City, Delaware, St. Georges, and two at Chesapeake City. These locks helped boats move between different water levels.
Mules and horses pulled barges, schooners, and sloops through the canal. They carried all sorts of goods, like lumber, grain, farm products, fish, cotton, coal, iron, and whiskey. Special packet ships were set up to move both goods and passengers. One company, the Ericsson Line, carried people and freight between Baltimore and Philadelphia well into the 1940s. In 1872, over 1.3 million tons of cargo passed through the canal!
A big problem was losing water from the locks. Every time a boat went through a lock, a lot of water was lost. This, plus leaks and evaporation, meant they needed a way to pump water back into the canal.
In 1837, a steam-powered pump was bought to lift water from Back Creek. By 1852, a steam engine and a huge waterwheel were installed at the pumphouse in Chesapeake City. This waterwheel was 39 feet (11.9 m) wide and 10 feet (3 m) across! It had 12 troughs that filled with water as it turned, pouring water back into the canal. Two steam engines worked together, using eight tons of coal daily to lift 170 tons of water every minute! These machines were used until the mid-1920s.
As the 19th century went on, ships got bigger and needed deeper water. The canal's locks were too small for these new vessels. By the early 1900s, less traffic used the canal, and it cost a lot to keep it running. It was clear that a bigger, wider, and deeper waterway was needed. In 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt even created a group to study making the canal a "free and open waterway."
A Modern Canal: 1920s to 1970s
In 1919, the U.S. government bought the canal for $2.5 million. They called it the "Intra-coastal Waterway Delaware River to Chesapeake Bay." This purchase included six bridges and a railroad bridge. These were later replaced with new, modern bridges.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers took over running and improving the canal. In the mid-1920s, they started moving the eastern entrance of the canal from Delaware City south to Reedy Point. All the locks (except one at Delaware City) were removed. The canal was changed to a "sea-level" waterway, meaning it was all one level, 12 feet (3.7 m) deep and 90 feet (27.4 m) wide. These improvements cost $10 million! The old lock at Delaware City was saved and listed as a historic place in 1975.
The "new" canal opened in May 1927 with a big celebration. Even then, plans were already being made to make it even bigger for even larger ships. Between 1935 and 1938, the canal was made deeper (27 feet or 8.2 m) and wider (250 feet or 76.2 m). This cost nearly $13 million. The project also made the Upper Chesapeake Bay channel deeper and wider.
As ships grew, accidents happened more often. Between 1938 and 1950, eight ships crashed into bridges! In 1954, the United States Congress approved making the canal even wider (450 feet or 137 m) and deeper (35 feet or 10.7 m). This work started in the 1960s and finished in the mid-1970s.
New bridges were also built to handle cars crossing the canal. Two old lift bridges were knocked down by ships and replaced in the 1940s with high, modern highway bridges. Two other high bridges, Summit Bridge (1960) and Reedy Point Bridge (1968), were also built. In 1966, a new railroad lift bridge was finished.
After the modern sea-level canal opened in 1927, special patrol boats helped guide ships. But by 1968, new technology like closed-circuit televisions, radar, and radios made these boats unnecessary. Modern, central control took over.
The Canal Today
Today, the C&D Canal is a very modern waterway. It's controlled electronically and is super important for business. About 40% of all ship traffic going in and out of the Port of Baltimore uses this canal!
Since 1933, the Corps' Philadelphia District has managed the canal and its bridges from a building in Chesapeake City, Maryland. You'll see all kinds of boats: cargo ships, tankers, container ships, barges with tugboats, and many recreational boats. Dispatchers use cameras and radios to watch and safely guide commercial traffic through the canal.
Navigating big ocean ships needs a lot of skill, especially with strong currents or bad weather. Ships coming from other countries must have a certified maritime pilot to guide them through the canal, the Delaware River, and Chesapeake Bay.
Usually, a pilot from the Delaware River boards a ship near Lewes, Delaware. They guide the ship up the bay and into the canal to Chesapeake City. Then, a Maryland pilot takes over and guides the ship into the Chesapeake Bay to Baltimore or Annapolis, Maryland. The process is reversed for ships going east. This "changing of the pilots" happens at Chesapeake City. The pilot boat pulls up next to the moving ship, and the pilots climb on or off!
C&D Canal Museum
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers runs the C&D Canal Museum in Chesapeake City, Maryland. It's located in the original canal pumphouse, which still has a waterwheel and old pumping engines! The museum teaches you about the canal's history and how it works. You can even see live ship locations on a TV monitor. Admission is free, and the museum is open Monday-Friday, except on government holidays.
Close to the museum, there's a full-sized copy of the 30-foot (9.1 m) Bethel Bridge Lighthouse. The real lighthouse used to warn ships about locks and bridges before the canal was changed to sea-level in 1927.
Canal Crossings
Here are the bridges that cross the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal:
| Crossing | Carries | Location | Coordinates |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chesapeake City Bridge |  MD 213 |
Chesapeake City, Maryland | 39°31′45″N 75°48′50″W / 39.52917°N 75.81389°W |
| Summit Bridge |   DE 71 / DE 896 |
Summit, Delaware | 39°32′29″N 75°44′17″W / 39.54139°N 75.73806°W |
| Chesapeake & Delaware Canal Lift Bridge | Delmarva Central Railroad | Kirkwood, Delaware | 39°32′36″N 75°42′11″W / 39.54333°N 75.70306°W |
| Senator William V. Roth Jr. Bridge (Chesapeake & Delaware Canal Bridge) |
 DE 1 |
St. Georges, Delaware | 39°33′00″N 75°39′23″W / 39.55000°N 75.65639°W |
| St. Georges Bridge |  US 13 |
39°33′10″N 75°39′05″W / 39.55278°N 75.65139°W | |
| Reedy Point Bridge |  DE 9 |
Delaware City, Delaware | 39°33′30″N 75°34′57″W / 39.55833°N 75.58250°W |