Historic Canton

Historic Canton. Viewing the Entrance to the Baltimore Harbor from the Canton Waterfront Park. , Canton Cove is directly in front of you. Here, schooners would wait before receiving the message to head to Fells Point to unload their cargo. The Inner Harbor, at that time, was a swamp and not navigable., Fort McHenry is further out to the right, and to your left directly across the water from the fort is Lazaretto Lighthouse., For McHenry during the War of 18 12 defended Baltimore against the British, whose ships never got past Fort McHenry because Baltimoreans sunk ships in the narrowest part of the harbor, blocking the British from advancing further into the harbor., During the Industrial Revolution in the 1870s, the shoreline to the left was turned into a maritime industrial complex by the Canton Company. Here, the company built piers, shoreline bulkheads, terminals and warehouses to accommodate developing industries. They also built their own Canton Railroad, which connected ships to land to trunk lines of major railroads going north and west., The Canton Company would pick up its greatest industrial success developing this shoreline where industries would gain access to the shipping channels of the Chesapeake Bay and ports throughout the world. Confidence and momentum abounded and the Canton Company risked all in purchasing additional 7000 acres from the Colonel Colgate estate to continue their successful industrial development further to the east.