A conceptual drawing from a 1988 study that envisioned the revitalization of the river and canal near Tredegar Iron Works (Photo courtesy Historic Richmond Foundation, Collection of Jack Pearsall)
The proposal asks the reader to dream big.
“The quietly beautiful James River and Kanawha Canal begins in the proposed museum area and extends westward well past the Maymont Zoo in Byrd Park,” the narrative propounds. “An impressive engineering feat, this was the second great inland transportation conceived and constructed in our nation. Canal boat excursions up and down this uniquely scenic, historic waterway along the river’s north bank have been seriously proposed for some time.”
So went a circa-1973 prospectus prepared by the Old Dominion Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society for a Virginia Transportation Museum next to Tredegar Iron Works. Pavilions devoted to rail and electric streetcar travel and antique automobiles would’ve included a landing for a motorized canal boat cruise — such as what today exists going the opposite direction along the Canal Walk using a repurposed millrace (a channel used for a water wheel), not the original canal.
The Tredegar site holds the filled-in Upper Basin — also called Harvie’s Mill Pond or Penitentiary Pond because of its proximity — where, prior to the Civil War, there were yards for leather tanning and coal delivery, boat building and repair, and a gauge dock for determining canal-boat tolls by weight. By 1889, this became the Second Street Railyard situated at the base of Gamble’s Hill. This is a swale behind the Virginia War Memorial (1955) and adjacent to the remnants of Tredegar Iron Works (1837-1957).
The former Harvie's Mill Pond (Upper Basin) of the James River and Kanawha Canal, circa 1865 (Photo courtesy the Library Company of Philadelphia)
The introduction explains how construction of the Downtown Expressway “will drastically and permanently affect present railway usage of this yard, making the site potentially available for use as a recreational museum. We propose that acquisition of this site for such purpose be undertaken by our organization.”
This ambitious proposal didn’t sell to corporate and city interests.
The expressway obliterated three of the stone locks of the Tidewater Connection, although two remained thanks to Reynolds Metals' stewardship — adjacent now to the Gates building of The Locks apartments. The Tidewater Connection, with five locks and the Great Ship Lock, completed in 1854, connected Richmond's Great Turning Basin with the James River, lifting boats 107 feet. These locks allowed freight boats to avoid the treacherous rapids.
Despite this loss, canal advocates in every decade since the expressway’s construction have sought a use for the waterway. The Historic Richmond Foundation and the Richmond Economic Development Authority, through Carlton Abbott & Partners, initiated a 1988 study of revitalizing the canal near Tredegar Iron Works to send launches west. The public-private Richmond Renaissance in 1990 received a commissioned feasibility report from the engineering firm of Whitman, Requardt and Associates about re-watering the canal westward from Tredegar. The document estimated a $3 million price tag for installing a landing on city-owned property near Tredegar and a dock at Maymont Park.
Richmond Renaissance’s successor, Venture Richmond, following the immense success of the Richmond Folk Festival (which turns a banner 15 this year), christened the former city and Ethyl Corp. property — once site of the Upper Basin — for the Tredegar Green amphitheater. After disputes with the nearby Oregon Hill neighborhood and a mistakenly knocked-down original brick wall that was soon rebuilt, the plan received significant revision. Tredegar Green uses a natural slope where the Folk Festival’s main stage is installed.
The surging numbers of people seeking access to the river, whether they're visiting the American Civil War Museum or the Richmond National Battlefield Park headquarters, using the Potterfield Memorial Bridge, or attending events on Brown’s Island, has caused Venture Richmond to again speculatively consider plans for excursion craft moving west, from near Tredegar to at least Maymont.
The Richmond Riverfront Plan, adopted in 2012, also mentions the possibility of “restoring functional access to the James River and Kanawha Canal.”
Canal enthusiasts dream of a course going past Hollywood Cemetery to Byrd Park and the old Pump House to another natural basin, Sydnor’s or Pollard’s Pond, beneath the Powhite Parkway bridge.
William E. Trout III, a canal enthusiast from the late 1970s on and trustee of the Virginia Canals & Navigations Society, helms the Virginia Canal Museum in Madison Heights, near Lynchburg. He says by email that the canal is watered from Bosher’s Dam for 8 miles to within a third of a mile of Tredegar. The dry canal bed runs into Tredegar.
“And if the canal can be watered again through Tredegar,” Trout envisions, “little motorized boats could even take tourists from Tredegar up to Maymont and the Byrd Park Pump House and back. These could be similar to the boats which already give tourists excellent tours of the canal from 14th Street,” close to where, he notes, a restaurant called Bateau is preparing to open in the Vistas on the James high-rise.
Trout further points out that the society considers Tredegar to be the best place in Virginia where tourists could enjoy an authentic mule-drawn canal boat trip in season. A stretch of canal there could be rewatered, and at Tredegar, a towpath remains. He explains, “The horse and mule-drawn canal boats were much larger than batteaux, up to 93 feet long and 14 1/2 feet wide, so a replica would be impressive.” (A recently published book by the society, “Amazing Virginia Canals,” covers historical high points, ongoing park development on canals and whitewater river navigations. To find out more, see vacanals.org.)
Getting to Maymont alone would cost, at current estimates, $10 million. Lisa Sims, director of Venture Richmond, explains that the preference is to embark on the project simultaneously with eventual city dredging and canal improvements.
“If the city’s doing the work anyway, we could tag onto what they’re doing without adding extra,” she says. The course would flow alongside the North Bank Trail. “It would require fundraising — which doesn’t mean it can’t be done. The canal is there. It just needs work.”
