Powering the South: The Augusta Canal

Abstract

Leaders from south of America planned to build a canal along a stretch of the Savannah River that ran through Augusta. The goal was to become the South’s version of Lowell, Massachusetts, the center of the American Industrial Revolution. The plan for the Augusta Canal was for it to be built just south of the river and extend into the center of the city. Its configuration resembled a three-pronged fork with an off-center handle and prong tips bent until touching. The canal ultimately consisted of three levels. A wing dam would channel water from the river at the head of the falls into the first and longest level of the canal to industries along its eastern bank, then fall through water wheels or turbines and come out at the second level 13 feet lower. From the second level the water again fell 13 feet through mill power machinery to the third level. The third level, a widening and connecting of Beaver Dam Creek and Hawks Gully, carried the spent water to the Savannah River. The plan straddled the legal domain of both a private corporation and the city government.