The Blackstone Canal
A Waterway of Progress
In the early years of the 19th century, in a nationwide effort to open up the interior of the United States, businessmen in eastern and midwestern American built a number of canals.
Beginning in 1824, the Blackstone Canal was constructed by Irish immigrants using the Blackstone River to connect Providence, Woonsocket and Worcester, MA. The idea was to provide cheaper and faster transportation of freight up and down the Blackstone River Valley using horses to pull the barges.
In 1828 a group of Providence businessmen opened the 45-mile Blackstone Canal. Primarily a river canal, with 45 locks to avoid dams, natural waterfalls and shorten large loops in the river, the canal ran through what is today the heart of Woonsocket. Three locks in the Market Square – Main Street area brought the canal around Woonsocket Falls and the area immediately below the falls.
The canal was replaced by the faster and more dependable Providence and Worcester Railroad in 1847. All that remains of the canal in Woonsocket today, is a ditch that parallels the Blackstone River in a sweeping curve behind Clinton and Cumberland Streets.
Although the Blackstone Canal has long since vanished, and canal boats have not been seen in Woonsocket for 185 years, the short-lived Blackstone Canal provided the initial opening of the Blackstone Valley region for economic development.
