Chesapeake City and the C&D Canal

Very old Chesapeake City lock – west view, circa 1850. Note bare ground, lack of trees.

Lock and the toll house. Henry Norris collected the tolls for the canal company. Joseph Schaefer’s ship’s chandlery was at top right, with Back Creek in the distance.

Henry Norris and his wife in retirement. They lived on the corner of George Street and 4th street, at the site of the current parking lot of Foard’s funeral home

Chesapeake City and the C&D Canal

Chesapeake City and the C&D Canal

 This is an illustration of the actual and proposed routes of the planners when (in the early 1800s) they decided where to dig the canal from the Chesapeake Bay to the Delaware River. You can notice, at top, a small feeder canal that workers began digging in about 1802. The project was discontinued when a racially motivated fight resulted in the death of one of the workers.

Here’s an illustration showing where the canal was dug through Broad Creek into Delaware.