Around the Falls

Around the Falls. . , The Pawtucket Falls posed a transportation problem for merchants and shipbuilders in 18th century Newburyport. These merchants wanted to bring timber down from New Hampshire, but there were few interior roads, and rafting logs over the falls was difficult. , In 1792, investors chartered a corporation to build and operate what was a reasonable and increasingly familiar solution - a short transportation canal skirting the falls. Four years later, rafts of logs began flowing down the completed 1 1/2 mile Pawtucket Canal. The Middlesex Canal, which connected the Merrimack River to Boston, opened later in 1803. , In 1821, this transportation canal attracted investors with a different vision for the Pawtucket Falls. They recognized the energy potential of the 32-foot drop in the river and saw the canal as a way to power an industrial complex of scale. , ( photo captions ) , , With waterpower from the river and transportation to markets provided by the Pawtucket (1796) and Middlesex(1803) canals, fledgling industries appeared in what was then known as East Chelmsford. Sawmills like the one pictured here, a glassworks, woolen and cotton mills, and a gunpowder works began to wean the region away from an agricultural economy. , , Nathan Appleton (above) accompanied by several other Boston investors, visited East Chelmsford, precursor to Lowell, in 1821 and recognized the industrial potential of the site. , , Much of the Middlesex Canal has been filled in, but evidence of it can be seen in Wilmington, Massachusetts. The stone structure (right)once supported a wooden aqueduct that carried the man-made waterway over the Shawsheen River.