The success of the Erie Canal in New York was one impetus to the development of plans for a canal system in Pennsylvania. Another was the economic demand for a waterway access to Philadelphia from western Pennsylvania for the products of Pennsylvania’s farming, timber and manufacturing industries. Finally, on July 4, 1828, ground was broken for a canal system that would later be known as the “Main Line Canal System”. Ultimately the Main Line Canal ran from Columbia, PA to Pittsburgh, PA with the 37 mile long Allegheny Portage Railroad in place between Hollidaysburg and Johnstown for crossing the Allegheny Mountain
The Juniata Division began at the Canal basin on a point of land called North’s Island where the Juniata and Susquehanna Rivers merged and ran to Hollidaysburg, a distance of 127 miles. The Juniata Division had 86 locks, and 25 aqueducts, a water bridge that carried the canal over other streams that flowed into the river. The aqueducts were usually wooden structures on stone piers. From North’s Island the canal followed the north bank of the Juniata River until it reached Huntingdon; from there much of the navigation was in the river itself.
Shank, William H., The Amazing Pennsylvania Canals, American Canal & Transportation Center, York, PA 1981, pp. 24-30.
