Historic Canals & Waterways of South Carolina ~ Robert J. Kapsch

South Carolina's first transportation revolution was the development of a network of canals and waterways. From the 1790s to the 1830s, the Palmetto State was a preeminent leader in infrastructure improvements and developed an extensive system of more than two thousand miles of canals and waterways connecting virtually every part of the state with the coast and the port of Charleston. Robert J. Kapsch expertly recounts the complex history of innovation, determination, and improvement that fueled the canal boom in early-nineteenth-century South Carolina. At the center of the state's waterway system was the Santee Canal, constructed between 1793 and 1800 to tie the Santee River and its upcountry watershed with the Cooper River and Charleston Harbor in the south. The Santee Canal was America's first summit-level canal—the most complex type of canal to plan, design, and build. Following the War of 1812, South Carolina set about building additional canals and improving navigation on the sta