Pennsylvania and Erie Canal

United States Migration Routes  Ohio  Pennsylvania and Ohio Canal. The Pennsylvania and Ohio Canal, also known as the P & O Canal, the Cross Cut Canal and the Mahoning Canal. It was a shipping canal which operated from 1840 until 1877 (though the canal was completely abandoned by 1872). This canal had two unique qualities: It connect canals in two states (the Ohio and Erie Canal in Ohio and the Beaver and Erie Canal in Pennsylvania) and funding was from private interests.

Construction began on September 17, 1835, when the two engineers of the canal struck iron stakes in the ground at the center of what was known as the "Portage Summit" between what is now Kent, Ohio, and Ravenna. Workers manually dug the 82 miles of the P & O using picks, shovels, and wheelbarrows.

The canal began at New Castle, Pennsylvania and continued to Akron, Ohio where it connected with the Ohio and Erie Canal in downtown Akron. It also ran along old Native American trails and the Cuyahoga and Mahoning Rivers. In Northeast Ohio. The water sources for the canal were Lake Pippen and Brady Lake.