The Middlesex Canal was built in the late 18th century to connect the Merrimack River with the port of Boston. Thus opening up the vast interior of New England to its merchant capital. The canal ran from Middlesex Village in East Chelmsford, Massachusetts, later Lowell, Massachusetts through several Middlesex County towns terminating near Charlestown, Massachusetts. The water source for the canal was the Concord River at Billerica, Massachusetts. This was also the highest point of the canal.
The Canal was one of the main thourough-fares in New England until the advent of the railroad. In fact the Boston and Lowell Railroad (now a part of the MBTA Commuter Rail System) was built using the plans from the original surveys for the Canal. It follows the Canal route very closely, and in fact theCanal was used to transport the construction materials for the railroad.
For the next forty years, the canal represented the most economical means of transporting goods between Lowell and Boston and was directly responsible for the development of Lowell as the first industrial city in Massachusetts.
With the completion of bypass canals around the falls and rapids of the Merrimack River in New Hampshire in 1815 the usable route was extended to include Concord, New Hampshire.
The MiddlesexCanal Association was incorporated in 1964 with the purpose of publicizing the history of the canal, preserving whatever portions remain, and restoring these portions, if poss- ible, as historical and recreational areas for the general public.
The overwhelming acceptance of canals in England seemed to provide the board of directors of the MiddlesexCanal Corporation with clear proof that their venture, though subject to the variable conditions of the weather, would be able to easily compete with, and surpass the traditional forms of overland transportation.
The Canal storehouse, which was on the western wharf, was two stories high, sixty feet long, and forty feet wide and served several functions: a boardinghouse, a bar, and for storage, and before 1832 a room in the finished part of the building was the Canal office.
The portion of the Canal along the Mystic Valley Parkway between the north end of Sagamore Street in northern Medford and Sandy Beach in southern Winchester was variously impacted by the construction of the Boston and Lowell Railroad in the 1830s, the Mystic Valley Sewer in the 1890s, and the Mystic Valley Parkway itself.
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