“L” is for Landsford Canal. Landsford Canal in eastern Chester County was designed by Robert Mills as part of a comprehensive plan of internal improvements designed to connect fall line markets with the upstate. Completed in 1823, the canal was twelve feet wide, ten feet deep, and two miles long. Five locks raised and lowered barges through the thirty-two foot fall of the nearby Catawba River. Three bridges crossed the canal and six storm culverts carried streams underneath it. Despite the admirable engineering, the Landsford Canal was not a success. Almost no tolls were collected. By 1840 all traffic through the Catawba-Wateree canals had apparently ceased. The sturdy granite locks of the Landsford Canal survived the collapse of the state’s canal system and were listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1969.
“L” is for Landsford Canal.
