Before the construction of dams, travel on the Allegheny and Kiskiminetas rivers was dependent on seasonal rains.
At times, the water in the river channels was not deep enough for boat traffic. The earliest boats used on the rivers had very shallow drafts. They were canoes, rafts, flatboats and keelboats. The latter three styles were wide and shallow and were designed for the transport of heavy cargo in shallow waters.
However, even these would run aground and have to wait for rains to provide enough water to continue their journeys. This problem was especially troublesome when transporting animals and perishable farm goods.
It was decided in the 1820s to construct canals along the Allegheny and Kiski rivers. Water from the small side streams could be diverted to the narrow channels of the canals to provide a dependable means of transporting goods and people. The nickname for the canal at the time was “The Silver Thread.”
The canal ran along the Tarentum side of the river in the location currently occupied by the railroads. When the canal system was abandoned in the 1860s, the railroads purchased the canal rights of way and placed their tracks on them.
In the spring of 1827, thousands of immigrants, mostly Irish, came to the Alle-Kiski Valley to begin work on the canals. In addition to laborers, carpenters were employed to build locks, dams, boats and rafts that would travel the canals.
The canal channel was typically 5 feet deep, 40 feet wide at the top and 28 feet wide at the bottom. This width would allow boats traveling in opposite directions to pass each other.
The boats, or packets as they were called, were pulled by a team of horses or mules attached to a rope. The animals walked along the side of the canal on what was known as a tow path.
Normal loads would require the use of two horses, and heavy loads would require three or more. The team of horses was changed about every 8 miles.
The canal boats were 6 to 8 feet wide and approximately 60 feet long. They would carry as many as 70 people, including the crew, captain and two cooks, as well as freight.
Passengers paid 2 cents a mile, and freight cost 20 cents per hundred pounds per mile. The canal boats traveled at approximately 4 mph.
By 1834, you could travel the entire distance between Pittsburgh and Harrisburg by canal boat and the portage railroad across the Allegheny Mountains.
The trip between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia cost $12 and took four days — with the last portion of the trip beyond Harrisburg done by train.
It took eight hours to travel from Natrona to Pittsburgh and costs 25 cents, which included a sleeping berth and breakfast on the boat.
To enter Pittsburgh, the canal boats traveled on an elevated covered bridge or aqueduct carrying the canal across the Allegheny River. It was a 1,134-foot structure joining Allegheny, now known as the North Side, and the City of Pittsburgh.
This aqueduct was located near the present Pennsylvania Railroad Bridge and was designed by Saxonburg’s John Roebling, who also designed the Brooklyn Bridge in New York.
Roebling’s aqueduct replaced a wooden span that had been used in the first 15 years of the canal’s existence. His aqueduct collapsed into the Allegheny River in 1861.
There also was a large aqueduct at Freeport that carried the canal across the Allegheny River and a smaller one in Tarentum to carry the canal across Bull Creek.
The western division of the Pennsylvania Canal was completed in 1829. The first canal boats arrived in Pittsburgh on Nov. 10 of that year. During the first year of its operation, the canal carried 20,000 passengers and 50,000 tons of freight.
Charles Dickens traveled here on the canal in March 1842 and wrote a long and humorous account of life on a canal boat in his “American Notes.” Harriet Beecher Stowe, an abolitionist and author of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” also wrote an article about canal travel from a female perspective.
Other famous persons who traveled by canal boat in the Alle-Kiski Valley included Henry Clay; Jenny Lind, the Swedish Nightingale; and François d’Orléans, Prince de Joinville of France.
The bodies of two presidents, William Henry Harrison and Zachary Taylor, were carried on the canal to their final resting places.
Some travelers on the canal would elect to stay overnight at a hotel. A popular spot in the area was the Hotel Denmarsh, later known as the Barsky’s Hotel. These passengers would use a ferry to take them across the river to New Kensington.
The canals were popular with residents. They were used for swimming and fishing. In the winter, they were used for ice skating.
The locks on the canal were not far apart, with one at Mile Lock Lane in Brackenridge and another at Lock Street in Tarentum. The locks were 90 feet long and 17 feet wide. The sides of the locks were lined with stone.
Because of the presence of the canal in the Alle-Kiski Valley, several events took place that changed life forever in the United States.
Oil residue from the salt wells owned by Samuel Kier in Creighton was dumped into the Pennsylvania Main Line Canal. In 1845, a group of children playing along the canal threw a burning stick into its waters near the PPG plant and set the canal on fire.
With the oil floating on the water, there was nothing to be done until the fire burned itself out. Residents feared for their homes and businesses adjacent to the canal.
As a result of this event, Kier discovered that the black greasy residue from the salt wells could be used for illumination and heat.
He began selling the unrefined material as a patent medicine at 50 cents per bottle. He also sold petroleum butter and petroleum jelly as a topical ointment. He refined the oil using a still and discovered an inexpensive way to produce kerosene.
Kier set up the country’s first oil refinery in Pittsburgh. He patented the glass chimney used in oil lamps which allowed the oil to burn cleaner and with less odor. Kerosene became the principal fuel for lamps in the United States, earning Kier and his investors a fortune.
The blacksmith and inventor who drilled the salt wells at Creighton was “Uncle Billy” Smith, a Tarentum resident. He was later hired by Edwin Drake to drill America’s first commercial oil well in Titusville. This well is considered the birthplace of the petroleum industry throughout the world.
In 1857, the old Pennsylvania Mainline Canal was sold to the Pennsylvania Railroad, which continued to operate it until the aqueduct at Freeport was destroyed by the flood of 1865.
In November 1866, the first regular passenger trains began running from Tarentum.
