The Dismal Swamp Canal and the Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal
form alternative routes along the
Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway (AIWW) between the
Chesapeake Bay and Albemarle Sound. The canals and
the rest of the waterway are maintained and cared for by
the United States Army Corps of Engineers. The AIWW
provides pleasure boaters and commercial shippers with a
protected inland channel between Norfolk, Virginia and
Miami, Florida. The history of these two canals, which
contain the only locks along the AIWW, paints a vivid
picture of the development of transportation that goes
back over 200 years. It is also a fascinating tale rich in
folklore and literature.
Over 200 years ago, as it is today, transportation
was the lifeblood of the North Carolina sounds region
and the Tidewater areas of Virginia. The landlocked
sounds were entirely dependent upon poor overland
tracks or shipment along the treacherous Carolina coast
to reach further markets through Norfolk.
The first to propose the ''advantage of making a
channel to transport by water-carriage goods from the
Albemarle Sound into the Nansemond and Elizabeth
Rivers'' was Colonel William Byrd II of Virginia in 1728.
He had just returned from making a survey of the
Virginia-North Carolina border for the English Crown.
During the expedition, he and his party had to struggle
through the dense undergrowth and forests of the great
swamp. Byrd, finding the place repulsive, is said to be
responsible for the addition of ''Dismal'' to the name.
It would be nearly 60 years, following the
Revolutionary War, before a canal was begun. The new
nation desperately needed good roads connecting the
isolated towns and villages with larger cities. If the
country was to grow and prosper, an effective means of
internal transportation had to be developed. Both George
Washington and Patrick Henry felt that canals were the
easiest answer and favored a route through the Dismal
Swamp. Although Washington was not involved in the
canal’s construction, he was familiar with the region. He
and a group of business “adventurers” owned some
50,000 acres in the Dismal Swamp that they were
logging. Washington Ditch, a separate cut through the
swamp, was built to transport their timber. The remnants
of it are still visible today.
Finally, in 1793, construction began on both ends
of the Dismal Swamp Canal. The canal had to be dug
completely by hand so progress was slow and expensive.
Most of the labor was done by slaves hired from nearby
landowners. It is interesting to note that the slaves
became so familiar with the swamp during this period
that it eventually became a haven for runaways. Later, in
the anti-slavery era prior to the Civil War, “Harper’s
Weekly” artist David Strother visited the area and
reported that there were large colonies of runaway slaves
in some sections of the swamp. Harriet Beecher Stowe
patterned her main character in the novel, “Dred: A Tale
of the Great Dismal Swamp,” on one of Strother’s
sketches. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was inspired to
pen his poem, “The Slave in the Dismal Swamp,” based
on Stowe’s character.
By 1796, the costs of building the canal had far
exceeded the projected estimates. The company halted
work and began a road to connect the two canal sections.
The road was completed in 1802. The famous Irish poet,
Sir Thomas Moore, visited the area soon after and
immortalized “The Lake of the Great Dismal” in a ballad
about a legendary love affair.
The completed canal would eventually open in
1805, 12 years after it was begun. Because it was so
shallow, its use was limited to flat boats and log rafts that
were manually poled or towed through. Shipments
consisted mainly of logs, shingles, and other wood
products taken from the swamp’s great stands of cedar
and juniper. Needless to say, this was a far cry from
what farmers, lumbermen and merchants originally
envisioned as a regional trade route. Throughout its
history, the Dismal Swamp Canal has experienced hard
times.
The owners would give up trying to maintain it, let it fall
into disrepair and eventually sell it. The maintenance
problems were the result of flaws in the canal’s original
concept and design. Water levels between its beginnings
in Deep Creek and its original end in Joyce’s Creek were
not correctly measured. This left the canal without an
adequate source of water and subject to natural rainfall
and drainage conditions. Even with the feeder ditch built
to supply water from Lake Drummond, the canal was still
dry in periods of low rainfall and drought. The problem
remains even today. To preserve water levels in the
federally protected Great Dismal Swamp National
Wildlife Refuge, the feeder ditch is periodically shut off
during dry spells. This prevents the canal from draining
waters of the swamp and damaging its fragile ecosystem.
Rich in History
The Dismal Swamp Canal is the oldest operating artificial waterway in the United States. It is also rich in history and folklore. Visitors and canal navigators travel where famous explorers and presidents have stood and literary greats have been inspired for over 2000 years. For example, astride the two states’ border is the site where the infamous “Halfway House” hotel was built in the late 1820’s. The hotel was a popular spot for marriages, duels and those escaping the law. Since the hotel was on the state line, this last group simply walked to the other side of the hotel to avoid being captured in either state. It is also said that Edgar Allen Poe wrote “The Raven” during one of his stays at the hotel. And, as you follow the canal, you retrace the course of James Adams’ Floating Theatre, where Edna Ferber got the idea to write the novel ''Showboat,'' upon which the famous musical is based.Today, the Dismal Swamp Canal is on the National Register of Historic Places as a Historic Landmark, and is also noted as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark. In February 2004, the Dismal Swamp Canal was included in the National Park Service’s Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program. It is maintained by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as a navigational resource along the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway.
The Dismal Swamp Canal Timeline
