Chesapeake & Delaware Canal

The Chesapeake & Delaware Canal (C&D Canal) is a 14-mile (22.5 km) ship canal, 450 feet (137.2 m) wide and 35 feet (10.7 m) deep, linking the Delaware River to the Chesapeake Bay across Delaware and Maryland.

In the mid-1600s, mapmaker Augustine Herman noticed that the Delaware River and Chesapeake Bay were divided only by a thin stretch of land. A survey of possible water routes across the Delmarva Peninsula was conducted in 1764, but nothing came of it. The concept resurfaced in 1788, pushed by regional business figures, among them Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Rush of Philadelphia. A commercial venture began in 1802, during Canal Mania in England and Wales, but the C&D Canal Company did not declare the waterway open until 1829. Its $3.5 million price tag (equivalent to $89.1 million in 2025) made it one of the costliest canal projects of its era.

Today, the canal is owned and run by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Philadelphia District. The project office sits in Chesapeake City, Maryland, which also houses the C&D Canal Museum and the Bethel Bridge Lighthouse. The canal cuts roughly 300 miles off the trip between Wilmington or Philadelphia on the Delaware River and Baltimore on Chesapeake Bay, bypassing the Delmarva Peninsula. It serves as a landmark and cultural boundary for Delaware, separating the state’s urbanized north from its rural south (called “Lower Delaware”) and marking an unofficial northern edge of the Delmarva Peninsula.

**Early years**

In the mid-1600s, Augustine Herman—a Prague-born mapmaker who had worked as a Dutch envoy—observed that the Delaware River and Chesapeake Bay were separated only by a narrow landmass and proposed building a waterway between them. Over a century passed before any action occurred. In 1764, a survey of possible routes across the Delmarva Peninsula was carried out. One proposal came from Thomas Gilpin, Sr., a Quaker from Philadelphia and a member of the American Philosophical Society, who wanted a canal to shorten shipping from the Chesapeake to Philadelphia. He suggested a canal connecting the Chester River near present-day Millington, Maryland, to the Delaware River, and bought 39 acres (16 ha) of land around Millington, but the canal would not materialize for decades.

The idea was revived in 1788 by regional business leaders, including Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Rush. The canal would cut nearly 300 miles (500 km) from the water route between Philadelphia and Baltimore. In 1802, after actions by the legislatures of Maryland, Delaware, and Pennsylvania, the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal Company was incorporated, with merchant and banker Joseph Tatnall as president. More surveys followed, and in 1804, construction began under Benjamin Latrobe. The work involved 14 locks to link the Christina River in Delaware with the Elk River at Welch Point, Maryland, but the project stalled two years later due to lack of funds.

**Construction**

The canal company reorganized in 1822, and new surveys showed that over $2 million in capital was needed to resume work. Pennsylvania bought $100,000 in stock, Maryland $50,000, and Delaware $25,000. The federal government invested $450,000, with the rest coming from public subscriptions. In 1823 and 1824, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers played an unofficial but vital role, providing two senior officers to help choose a canal route. These officers, along with two civilian engineers, recommended a new route with four locks, running from Newbold’s Landing Harbor (now Delaware City) westward to the Back Creek branch of the Elk River in Maryland.

Construction resumed in April 1824, and within a few years about 2,600 men were digging and hauling dirt from the ditch. Laborers worked with pick and shovel, earning an average daily wage of 75 cents. The swampy marshlands along the planned route were a major obstacle; workers constantly fought slides on the soft slopes of the “ditch.” It was 1829 before the C&D Canal Company could finally announce the waterway “open for business.” Its $3.5 million construction cost made it one of the most expensive canal projects of its time.

In 1825, due to the efforts of Benjamin Wright, the company fired the canal’s chief engineer, John Randel Jr., who had surveyed the route and built the difficult eastern section. Randel sued for breach of contract, and in 1834 a jury awarded him $226,885.84 (equivalent to $7,317,068 in 2025), a huge sum for the era. The canal company’s appeals reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which upheld the award. The company tried to avoid paying, but the legislatures of Maryland and Delaware passed bills requiring it to settle its debts within five years. The massive judgment nearly bankrupted the company.

**1829 to 1919**

The Chesapeake Bay and Delaware River were now connected by a navigation channel nearly 14 miles (23 km) long, 10 feet (3 m) deep, 66 feet (20 m) wide at the waterline, and 36 feet (11 m) wide along the channel bottom. A covered wooden bridge at Summit, Delaware, spanned the canal across the “Deep Cut,” measuring 250 feet (76 m) between abutments. The bridge floor was 90 feet (27 m) above the channel bottom. Three wooden swing bridges also crossed the canal. Locks to move vessels through the waterway’s various levels were constructed.