FIRST - Improved Navigable Waterway in the United States - South Hadley, MA
Posted by: 
neoc1
N 42° 12.919 W 072° 35.953
18T E 698161 N 4676473
A monument commemorating the South Hadley Canal as the first improve navigable waterway in the United States is located at
Waymark Code: WM17NZG
Location: Massachusetts, United States
Date Posted: 03/17/2023
Views: 0
The Holyoke Water Power Company erected the monuments commemorating the building of the South Hadley Canal which by passed the rapids on the Connecticut River near the site of the present Holyoke-South Hadley Dam across the Connecticut River.
A bronze plaque attached to a trapezoidal stone base depicts the incline plane method of moving ships up river and is inscribed:
SOUTH HADLEY CANAL
BUILT BY THE PROPRIETORS OF THE LOCKS AND CANAL
♦
FIRST IMPROVED NAVIGABLE WATERWAY IN THE
UNITED STATES ... IN OPERATION FROM 1785 TO 1862
{Image of tractor on incline plane}
THE INCLINE PLANE
THE INCLINED PLANE AND SUBSEQUENT LOCK SYSTEM
WERE LOCATED 100 FEET TOWARDS
THE RIVER FROM HERE
HWP
HOLYOKE WATER POWER COMPANY
SUCCESSOR AND PROPRIETORS
THIS MONUMENT ERECTED 1860 ON THE
SITE OF THE OLD CANAL TAVERN
Today the remnants of the South Hadley Canal exists only as a intermittently wet ditch.
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