Georgia Natural Wonder #57 - Augusta Canal. 583

[Top Row Dawg]

Georgia Natural Wonder #57 - Augusta Canal

The Augusta Canal is a historic canal located in Augusta, Georgia, United States. It was designated a National Natural Heritage Area so we put it here on our top 100 list of Georgia Natural Wonders. The canal is fed by the Savannah River and passes through three levels (approximately 13 miles total) in suburban and urban Augusta before the water returns to the river at various locations. It was devised to harness the water power at the fall line of the Savannah River to drive mills, to provide transportation of goods, and to provide a municipal water supply. It is the only canal in the US in continuous use for its original purposes of providing power, transport, and municipal water.



The Augusta Canal, constructed in 1845, provides water to the city, power to factories, and transportation for canal craft. The canal rescued Augusta from a business depression in the 1840s and provided energy for war-related industries during the Civil War (1861-65). In the 1880s, it fueled an economic boom and then experienced neglect during the mid-1900s. The canal later benefited from a groundswell of popular support in the 1990s.



History

19th Century

The city of Augusta, situated at the Savannah River's head of navigation, had served as an entrepôt between land and river traffic since its founding in 1736. However, due to a national depression and the western migration of many of its citizens, Augusta needed a resource other than commerce.



Henry Cumming, son of the city's first mayor, Thomas Cumming, took the initiative in a bold enterprise—the construction of a seven-mile canal from above the Savannah River rapids into the heart of Augusta. In November 1844, at his own expense, Cumming engaged John Edgar Thomson, chief engineer of the unfinished Georgia Railroad, to survey the route of the waterway and draw up plans. Thomson's prestige provided credibility for the project.


Henry

The Augusta Canal was chartered in 1845 and initially completed in 1847, as a source of water, power, and transportation for the city of Augusta. It was one of the few successful industrial canals in the Southern United States. In 1847, construction began on the first factory, a saw and gristmill at the present site of Enterprise Mill. The Augusta Manufacturing Company, a sprawling four-story textile "manufactory", soon followed. They would be the first of many factories built along the Augusta Canal.


The Augusta Factory, a cotton mill, was powered by the Augusta Canal during the 1890s. The factory was built in 1847 and demolished in 1960.

Cumming credited William D'Antignac with proposing a creative scheme for financing the canal. Four banks agreed to put up $1,000 each as seed money. The city of Augusta issued bonds worth $100,000 to be redeemed by a "canal tax" levied on the value of property. Citizens received stock, or "canal scrip," in proportion to the taxes they paid and voted for a board of managers. The city continued to contribute to the cost and became the largest stockholder. The city council named a special Canal Board of Commissioners to build the canal, and Cumming served as president of the canal board. The canal's only paid employee, William Phillips, spent twenty-three years as secretary to the board and as chief engineer.

Construction

In May 1845 work began on twelve sections simultaneously. The original workers were white laborers from those parts of Georgia served by the Georgia Railroad; however, the summer's heat decimated the white work crew, and black labor—slave and free—finished the job. After digging began, the canal board made a controversial move and changed the outlet from east of Augusta to a point west of Augusta. Citizens in the lower ward objected and filed a suit against the city, contending that it had exceeded its authority in levying a canal tax and in extending the city limits over the seven-mile tract of the canal. Friends of the canal thwarted opposition by enacting state legislation that authorized the city to do what it had already done.



The lawsuit did not slow construction. By September 1845, 200 men were working on the first level. On November 23, 1846, the headgates opened for the first time and flooded the first level. In January 1847 the canal board hired Jabez Smith of Petersburg, Virginia, to supervise construction of the huge Augusta Factory at the terminus of the first level. James Coleman's saw and gristmill began operations on the canal in April 1848, becoming the first industry to do so. In May the Augusta Factory began the production of textiles.



During the next two years the canal board extended the second level five city blocks and built a third level that carried the water back to the river. Smaller shops opened for business on the second and third levels. The wooden aqueduct over Rae's Creek on the first level proved troublesome, so the canal board replaced it with a stone structure in 1853. His work done, Cumming resigned with the gratitude of the city, as Augusta began its industrial expansion. William Phillips became chief engineer, and his major contribution was a modern waterworks system, completed in 1861, that replaced conduits of hollowed-out logs.


Augusta Water Works

Industrial Growth

Because of the canal and because of Augusta's rail connections, Colonel George W. Rains selected Augusta as the site of a massive Confederate Powder Works that supplied the Confederate army throughout the Civil War. He oversaw its construction.


Rains

Other war-related industries also sprang up along the three levels of the waterway. Augustans considered their city "the heart of the Confederacy."



By the time of the Civil War, Augusta was one of the few manufacturing centers in the South. The power and water transportation afforded by the canal were among the factors that led Confederate Col. George Washington Rains to select Augusta as the location for the Confederate Powderworks. The 28 buildings, which were the only ones designed, constructed, and paid for by the government of the Confederate States of America, stretched for 2 miles along the Augusta Canal. Other war industries were established along or near the canal, making Augusta an important center for materiel.


Buckshot processing smoke stack only thing left from Confederate Ironworks.

As the Civil War moved into Georgia in 1864, there was fear that US General William Tecumseh Sherman's troops would move to attack Augusta and her massive gunpowder factory. But Sherman's march through the South left Augusta untouched. As a result, the city ended the war in reasonably better physical and economic condition than many Southern cities. The population had doubled and hard currency was available to finance recovery, including expansion of the canal.

 

After the war, Colonel Rains suggested that widening the canal would allow for larger factories to be constructed. Mayor Charles Estes, himself a former contractor who had worked on the Erie Canal in New York, hired another Erie engineer, Charles Olmstead, to supervise the project. Work began in 1872. The canal was widened and deepened, even as Petersburg boats continued to ply its waters. Italian masons blocked up the stone aqueduct, damming Rae's Creek and creating a lake named Lake Olmstead. The city hired more than 200 Chinese immigrants for the labor, many of whom remained in Augusta to form one of the oldest Chinese communities in the eastern United States.


Lake Olmstead

The canal was enlarged in 1875. A boom era saw the construction of huge new factories, chief of which were the Enterprise (1877), Sibley (1880), and John P. King Mill (1882), rose along the canal banks. The Lombard Ironworks; many other plants opened or expanded. Many people who lived on farms moved to the city to work at the mills, including women and children. The factories led to the rise of mill villages in their precincts.


Sibley Mill.

"Mill villages" clustered around the mills as families flocked from the depressed countryside to take jobs in the factories. Efforts to unionize the workers resulted in strikes in 1886 and 1898, but the mill managers broke both strikes by evicting strikers from company housing.



In the 1890s, the city replaced its old water pumping station with impressive structure at mid-canal that is still used by the city of Augusta today. In 1898 city engineer Nisbet Wingfield constructed both a new pumping station nearer to the head gates and a reservoir on the hill west of Augusta to serve the growing city.


Pumping Station today.

As the electric age began to dawn, Augusta began to turn the canal's falling water power to drive the first electrical generation equipment. Entrepreneur Daniel B. Dyer used waterpower from the canal to generate electricity for both electric streetcars and street lights — the first Southern city to have these amenities.


Augusta lit up today.

The availability of water led the U.S. Army to establish Camp Hancock near the reservoir during World War I (1917-18).



Two tragic incidents left memorials along the canal. In 1902 a young city worker, Dennis Cahill, drowned while attempting to rescue a young girl who had fallen into the canal. Citizens erected a monument to commemorate his heroism.


Cahill Memorial is at Butt Bridge.

Augusta native Archibald Butt, after assisting women and children into lifeboats, went down with the Titanic in 1912. Former U.S. president William Howard Taft presided over the dedication of a new bridge over the canal in honor of Butt, who had served as his aide.


Archibald and Bridge.

Tangent - The Butt Memorial Bridge is a road bridge in Augusta, Georgia that carries 15th Street over the Augusta Canal. It is dedicated to Major Archibald Willingham Butt, born in Augusta and a victim of the sinking of RMS Titanic. The bridge was erected in 1914 and dedicated by President William Howard Taft, a personal friend of Butt's.


U.S. president William Howard Taft (far right) presides at the April 1914 dedication of the Butt Memorial Bridge over the Augusta Canal.

It is notable that the bridge was the first memorial erected to remember the Titanic disaster, and it stands today as the only memorial in Georgia dedicated to the disaster. The bridge is made of stone, featuring four pillars topped with bronze-banded globes placed over electric lights. Four lions with plaques adorn each side and end of the bridge, while lights are strung from one end of the bridge to the other. A memorial plaque is located on the center of the bridge, dedicated to Butt's memory.



The bridge was designed by William Henry Deacy, architect and Nisbet Wingfield, civil engineer. The bridge was fabricated by W. W. Leland Company.

Preservation

In 1994, the fate of the Butt Bridge (as it is affectionately known in Augusta) was in doubt. City planners wished to get $15 million from the Federal Highway Administration to reroute 15th street, creating a new thoroughfare. Plans called for the demolishing of the Butt Bridge. The Butt Memorial Bridge Legal Defense Fund, founded by Ross Snellings, created a popular movement to save the 80-year-old bridge, producing two large-scale concerts nearby, punningly called the Butt Jam. One took place in 1994 and another in 1995. Several well-known bands of the time played the venue and the unofficial slogan, "Save Our Butt," appeared all over town.



The money generated helped stave off the destruction of the bridge for a few years, until an Act of Congress saved it. The Omnibus Consolidated and Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act, 1999 included funding language through the efforts of U.S. Sen. Paul Coverdell and U.S. Rep. Charlie Norwood to provide Augusta with nearly $9 million "for implementation of a project consisting of modifications and additions to streets, railroads, and related improvements in the vicinity of the grade crossing of the CSX railroad and 15th Street."



A 2016 $1.5 million rehabilitation of the bridge includes concrete overlay, reconfiguring the lanes to allow for a bikes and sidewalks and repair and preservation of the historical decorative elements such as the eagle lanterns. On August 22, 2016, the GA DOT closed the bridge. Beginning at 9 a.m., the structure closed to the traveling public for up to 300 days to allow for full deck replacement. The bridge was to reopen prior to the 2017 Masters. Local engineers expected this Georgia Transportation Investment Act - TIA bridge rehabilitation project to have all deck work finished before the event. Following a delay due to cold weather, the bridge opened temporarily on March 31, 2017. After Masters week, it closed again for installation of lights and flashers, with project completion in April 2017.



20th Century - Augusta Canal

Flooding was a big problem in Augusta during the early 20th century. Following major floods in the 1920s and 1930s, the Federal Works Progress Administration deployed hundreds of workers to make repairs and improvements, build a new spillway and to straighten the canal.



Flooding Broad Street.



By the mid-20th century, the canal came into a period of neglect. Textile factories began to close and the city's industrial activity began to shift south of the city. At one point in the 1960s, city officials considered draining the canal to build a superhighway.



Motor carriers eventually made canal transportation less important, and the availability of cheap electricity generated by power plants on the Savannah River rendered factories less dependent on waterpower from the canal. However, canal water continued to supply generators at the Augusta mills. From the 1920s to the 1960s, the city council attempted to find a way to build its own power plant on the canal and drain the major portion of the waterway. The city neglected maintenance, and the canal came to be regarded as a "cesspool." During the first urban renewal project in 1960, the Augusta Factory was demolished, and the second and third levels dried up.



Flickers of interest in reviving the Augusta Canal began appearing in the 1970s. A state park was proposed, but never materialized. In 1971 Joseph B. Cumming, the great-grandson of Henry Cumming and head of the Georgia Historical Commission, surprised city authorities by placing the canal on the National Register of Historic Places, which in turn triggered interest on the part of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. By 1974 the state of Georgia and the city of Augusta had agreed on plans to build a park along the canal. However, a lack of funding delayed the project, and the city returned to the old temptation of converting the canal into a power plant.



Although the National Register nomination and the plans for a state park generated a grassroots movement for the preservation of the canal. In 1989, the state legislature created the Augusta Canal Authority, the body that has jurisdiction over the canal today. The city nevertheless approved a contract for a power plant in 1991. At the same time, city leaders negotiated with a developer to build a golf course on virgin land between the canal and the river. Augusta's citizens organized the Savannah Waterways Forum to oppose these ventures. "Save the Augusta Canal" bumper stickers appeared on automobiles all over the city. A privately funded replica of a Petersburg boat, successfully launched in 1993, increased interest in the recreational possibilities of the canal.



The groundswell of opposition forced the city council to reconsider its plans for the power plant. Ironically and coincidentally, the Federal Regulatory Commission informed the city that its license to build a power plant had expired. The city dutifully replied that it no longer wanted to construct a plant. The federal commission notified the city that if it did not apply, then any private company might do so. After a Duluth company filed an application, the city had no choice but to apply for a power plant that it no longer wanted. The federal agency then demanded an environmental impact study costing more than $800,000. The canal seemed caught in a bureaucratic nightmare.



In 1993, the Authority issued a comprehensive Master Plan, outlining the Canal’s development potential. In 1996, the US Congress designated the Augusta Canal a National Heritage Area, the first such designation in Georgia. Public enthusiasm for the project persuaded U.S. senator Paul Coverdell to attach a rider to a land-management bill that designated the canal as a National Heritage Area. U.S. president Bill Clinton signed the bill into law on November 12, 1996, making the canal the first site in Georgia with this designation. The legislation permitted the canal authority to apply for up to a million dollars a year toward improvements until the year 2012.



With this new access to funding, the canal authority published a history of the canal that provided the basis for an interpretive center at the renovated Enterprise Mill. The center offers a ten-minute orientation film, as well as exhibits detailing the historical and technical aspects of the canal's construction and maintenance.



21st Century


Enterprise Mill

The Augusta Canal Authority moved forward with its master plan.



In 2003, the Augusta Canal Interpretive Center (now Discovery Center) opened in the revitalized Enterprise Mill.



The canal authority today uses canal water to generate electricity for its own use and sells the surplus to the Georgia Power Company. In 2004 the canal authority launched the second of its two custom-built Petersburg boats, appropriately named the Henry H. Cumming and the William Phillips. The Petersburg boats were inspired by the cargo vessels that once plied the canal with bales of cotton and farm goods.


The King and the Sibley textile mills are now owned by the Augusta Canal Authority.

National Designations

The canal is, along with four historic industrial areas, part of the Historic Augusta Canal and Industrial District, which was named a National Historic Landmark in 1977. It was also named a National Heritage Area by Congress in 1996, the first designated National Heritage Area in Georgia.



Today

The Augusta Canal is a principal source of drinking water in Augusta and is a centerpiece of the city. It also has been a focus of redevelopment. Textile mills such as the Enterprise and Sutherland mills have been converted to upscale offices and loft apartments. New projects, such as the Kroc Center and Canal side Apartments have been constructed.


Canal Side Apartments.

Other developments such as Harrisburg Canal Village, and Augusta Canal Mill Village trailhead are proposed or under construction.


Canoes depart from Augusta Canal headgate area during Augusta Canal Cruise and Cookout 2004

The canal is best known today for its recreational facilities, including daily guided tours on electric tour boats, paddling and kayaking, and for its multi-use trail. The 7-mile-long towpath on the canal's first level forms a backbone for the recreational trail system.



Complimented by newer trails including the River Levee Trail.



Third Level Trail.



And the Southern Off-Road Bicycle Association single-track mountain bike trail.



A trail named after the naturalist William Bartram parallels the canal. The recreational use of the canal today complements its traditional functions of providing water power to industry and drinking water to the public.



Moving all the way up the canal to Columbia County, we come to the head gates of the Canal in Evans.

Savannah Rapids Park

In cooperation with Columbia County, buildings at the headgates had been restored by 2005. This 33 acre park is home to the Savannah Rapids Pavilion and the Historic Augusta Canal Headgates. This newly developed area overlooks the picturesque Reed Creek Falls as it flows into the Historic Augusta Canal. Walkers and joggers love the pedestrian bridge that begins the 7.5 mile trail that takes you all the way to Augusta. Or you may simply chose to sit along the banks of Reed Creek and listen to the water rushing past. Picnic pavilions offer shade and a covered area to stop and rest or eat lunch.


Savannah River is quite rocky when water levels down, but we delve in to the rapids of the river in our Augusta Part Two Post tomorrow.

We will float the Savannah River tomorrow.  However, one of the local's favorite attractions is just kayaking the Augusta canal. It is easy, fun, and family friendly.



Out of all the adventures in Augusta, Kayaking the Augusta Canal might be my favorite. Hosted by the Savannah River Rapids Park, single kayaks, tandem, and paddleboards are available for rent ($20-$40) from the Savannah Rapids Kayak Rental Center located on the Savannah River Rapids Trail. The launch site is located at the beginning of the canal, near the headgates and ends a couples miles down in Lake Olmstead, a lake that branches off from the canal. If you rent one of their kayaks, they will pick both you and your kayak up and bring you back to the start point for only $5 dollars! If you bring your own kayak, they will still pick you up, but for a fee of $10. The whole trip takes anywhere from 1.5-2hrs. Because the current carries you downstream and you are being picked up at the end of the trip, you can relax and enjoy the scenery, or hop out and swim at any point along the way.



This one site list five things you should do.

KAYAK THE CANAL – Kayaking is a fun way to explore the Augusta Canal. You can rent kayaks (single or double) right on the canal at the park. They get very busy on the weekends, so reservations are recommended but walk ups are welcome. The staff will provide a life jacket and kayak, and then send you off. A few hours later, when you arrive at Lake Olmstead, they will pick you up, gather your equipment and shuttle you back to your car.



RENT BIKES – The Bicycle Peddler is relatively new to the park, and offers bike rental, repair and sales. Kids not ride yet? No problemo. They have trailers also!! The canal trail is wide and works for hikers or bikers.



HIKE THE HERITAGE AREA – Take a stroll between the Savannah River and the Augusta Canal, on the Augusta Canal Trail. It’s 7.5 miles (15 miles round trip – though you can turn around any time,) with a gorgeous natural and historic setting. If you walk the entire length of the trail you will end on the outskirts of Downtown, so you can stop for a breather – or a beer – before heading back.



PICNIC BY THE WATERFALL – From the parking lot, or just over the pedestrian bridge from the hiking trail, you’ll see Reed Creek Falls. Sit along the banks, listening to the water rushing past. Bring a picnic and enjoy the scenery – let the kids play on the nearby playground – and let the time pass with ease.



EXPLORE THE HEADGATES – In 1845 the first water flowed through the Augusta canal headgates into the first level of the canal. The second and thrid levels were completed in 1848. In 1875 the enlargement was complete leaving the canal in the state it is today. At the headgates you can see the historic building and the gorgeous rapids of the Savannah River. There are even love locks on the gates, reminding me of Paris!



FUN FACTS:

Augusta area kayakers have a 30 year tradition of playing kayak football in the Augusta Canal just upstream of the 13th Street gates. Most Wednesday evenings, boaters in whitewater kayaks, recreational kayaks, sit on tops, surf skiis and canoes, show up to throw a ball around in the water. The rules are basically kayak water polo, but to score, the ball must be thrown and caught across the goal line, just like a football touchdown. The ball can not be carried across the goal line and if it is thrown into the water across the goal line, the defenders get posession.


They found a kayak big enough for old Kentucky QB Jarred Lorentzon


Kayak Football in Augusta Canal (Class N/A, Mile 7.0) Kayak Football at 13th Street.

There is plenty of parking at the Savannah Rapids Park. The Augusta Canal Trail starts (or ends) here. Sidewalks and a grass slope provide seating for spectators and easy access to the canal for boaters.



OK since the canal is the first designated National Heritage Area in Georgia, and since it does provide great Natural Beauty and history, we let it stand alone as a Natural Wonder of Georgia. Tomorrow we come to the true Natural Wonder of Augusta, the Savannah River Fall Line and rapids. Tomorrow we start a deep dive into history of Augusta for part two our visit to this great part of Georgia. Today's GNW gal enjoys smooth floats.



We found some competing and intriguing GNW Gals on the Canal. .



Can't really see any faces today, but I have faith with regard to GNW Gals