Wiconisco Canal
canal in Pennsylvania, United States of America
The Wiconisco Canal was a 19th century transportation waterway, about 12 miles (19 km) long, in Dauphin County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. Running along the east bank of the Susquehanna River between Millersburg and Duncan's Island at the mouth of the Juniata River, the canal overcame about 42 feet (13 m) of vertical lift through the use of 7 locks.
Started by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the canal was completed in 1845 by a private firm and used to ship coal and other goods from northern Dauphin County to distant markets. Sold to a subsidiary of the Pennsylvania Railroad, it continued operating until largely destroyed by a flood in 1889. The canal's biggest aqueduct, No. 3 near Halifax, continues to serve as a highway bridge over Powell Creek. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1988, as the Bridge in Reed Township.
History
The state began construction of the canal in 1837 or 1838. Originally built as an extension of the Eastern Division of the Pennsylvania Canal, the canal was designed by Samuel Krauss, engineer of the Eastern Division. Plans called for a dam at Clarks Ferry to provide water deep enough for canal boats to cross the Susquehanna River parallel to Clarks Ferry Bridge and to enter or exit either canal.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Wiconisco Canal” is canal in Pennsylvania, United States of America. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Wiconisco, Canal and canal, not as a finished interpretation.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7998481. Authority coordinates are 40.401, -77.014. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1845, 1889, 1988 and 1837.
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This entry incorporates text from “Wiconisco Canal” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.