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=====Public works===== In February 1826, the [[Pennsylvania General Assembly|Pennsylvania state legislature]] approved the package of legislation known as the [[Main Line of Public Works]] with the goal of connecting the width and breadth of Pennsylvania by the best and most reliable transportation known, water transport. The project started with the harder parts up the [[Juniata River]] and over the mountains being funded first. $300,000 in the funding was for the construction of a [[canal|navigation]] that would be called the [[Pennsylvania Canal]] along the Susquehanna's eastern shore to bypass [[rapids]] and shallows and make the river navigable anywhere along its route. Also, as conceived, another {{convert|82|mi|adj=on}} canal would be dug from the terminus in Columbia to connect towns to the east with a terminus on the [[Delaware River]] at [[Philadelphia]]. Across the [[Alleghenies]], another canal would connect the [[Allegheny Portage Railroad]] (crossing the mountains) to the [[Ohio River]] and the [[Mississippi River]], ensuring the Port of Philadelphia would dominate inland trade and manufacturing in the exploding trans-Appalachian territories. It was a brave, far-looking, ambitious vision. Like the [[Erie Canal]] which was completed in 1825, the very year the legislation package came to be filed, the overall scheme was envisioned when [[water transport]] was the fastest means of travel over any long distance, was the best way to ship heavy bulk goods or cumbersome loads—and was before railways came to the public eye and their technology had been refined enough to become working propositions. In 1836 there were probably fewer than six railways in the world. The [[Canal|navigations]] began in 1832 after several delays, and the work proceeded quickly. The [[Pennsylvania Canal]] began operating in 1833, beginning in Columbia and then stretching {{convert|40|mi}} north to the junction of the [[Juniata River]] with the [[Susquehanna River]]. The intent was that goods and travelers could use the canal system to go west from Columbia to [[Pittsburgh]], [[Lake Erie]], [[Ohio]], and [present-day] [[West Virginia]] along the Juniata Division, or by taking the main Susquehanna north to reach north-central Pennsylvania and [[Upstate New York]]. The plan encountered difficulties. Engineering studies found no reasonably feasible way to provide enough water to keep an 82-mile canal to [[Philadelphia]] wet, much less support lock operations. When that was reported, the Pennsylvania Canal Commission came up with a new plan, one using the right of way authorized to build one of these newfangled railways that were making news. Their solution was the [[Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad]], one of the first common carrier commercial railways to operate in the United States. Double-tracked, it utilized two [[inclined plane]] cable railways at steep rises near either end, and except for bypasses of that older technology unneeded with more powerful locomotives, the P&CR trackage is still in use today, as it passed to the [[Pennsylvania Railroad]] in 1857, along with most of the Pennsylvania Canal. Canal boats could often be seen at the Bruner coal wharf, operated by H.F. Bruner & Sons at North Front and Bridge streets. The canal was originally planned to extend south from Columbia on the east side of the river, but local property owners objected. Instead, a two-tiered [[towpath]] was constructed along the south side of the bridge to transport boats across the river using horse and [[mule]] teams. The boats then linked with the [[Susquehanna and Tidewater Canal]] along the western shore at Wrightsville. This part of the canal system, which afforded passage to [[Baltimore]] or the [[Chesapeake and Delaware Canal]], opened in 1840. Several years later, a small dam was constructed across the river to form a pool that allowed steamboats to tow the canal boats. Canals could not be used in winter due to ice and floods, which caused damage that had to be repaired in the spring. These limitations, combined with an increase in railroad traffic, led to the decline of the canals. The Columbia Canal closed in 1901, the same year that Wright's Ferry ceased to operate. During this time, Columbia also became a stop on the [[Underground Railroad]]. [[Fugitive slaves in the United States|Slaves seeking freedom]] were transported across the Susquehanna, fed and given supplies on their way north to other states and [[Canada]]. To slave hunters from the South, the slaves seemed to simply disappear, leading one hunter to declare that there "must be an underground railroad here."<ref>Sheldon, 2006, p.53.</ref> Any idealistic view of [[abolitionism]] in Columbia is surely tested, however, by the occurrence of a significant [[race riot]] in 1834. The riot erupted in August of that year<ref>Worner, W.F. (2007). ''The Columbia Race Riots'', p. 177 https://archive.org/stream/columbiaraceriot00wornrich/columbiaraceriot00wornrich_djvu.txt</ref> when white workers revolted against working alongside Black freedmen. Citing a document drafted by the rioters themselves, historian [[David Roediger]] explains that typical of other race riots of the period, white rioters feared "a plot by employers and abolitionists to open new trades to Blacks and 'to break down the distinctive barrier between the colors that the poor whites may gradually sink into the degraded condition of the Negroes - that, like them, they may be slaves and tools'."<ref>Roediger, D. (2007). ''The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American Working Class''. London: Verso Books. p. 58</ref> The rioters' declaration called for "colored freeholders" to be "singled out for removal from the Borough".<ref>''ibid''</ref> The riot resulted in a large number of African American residents being forced from their homes and their property destroyed.<ref>Worner (2007), p. 181</ref> In 1834, another bridge was built by James Moore and John Evans at a cost of $157,300 (~${{Format price|{{Inflation|index=US-GDP|value=157300|start_year=1834}}}} in {{Inflation/year|US-GDP}}). This bridge also enjoyed the distinction of being the world's longest covered bridge. The same year, construction began on the first railway line linking Columbia and Philadelphia, which subsequently became part of the [[Pennsylvania Railroad]]. Named the [[Main Line of Public Works#Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad|Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad]], it officially opened in October 1834. By 1852, regular rail transportation from Columbia to Baltimore, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Harrisburg made the town the commercial center for the area halfway between the [[county seat]]s of [[Lancaster, Pennsylvania|Lancaster]] and [[York, Pennsylvania|York]].
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