Savannah and Ogeechee Canal

Built between 1826 and 1830, this 16.5-mile barge canal links the Savannah and Ogeechee rivers. When finished it was 48 feet wide at the top, 33 feet at the base and five feet deep, with six locks and five lock keeper's houses after 1840s improvements. Barges moved lumber, cotton and rice to Savannah's port and manufactured goods inland, and the canal supported brickyards, foundries and wharves on the city's west side, many dependent on enslaved labor. In December 1864 Union and Confederate soldiers skirmished along it during Sherman's March to the Sea; it was repaired by 1866. The Central of Georgia Railway, which bought stock in 1888, helped end its commercial role. In 1933 WPA workers drained portions and linked it to the Springfield Canal for drainage and flood control. Today sections of the earthen channel, remains of all six locks, a brick aqueduct and the Half Moon Lake dam survive, though highways, fill and development have interrupted the route.