Great Shiplock Canal Park

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Joined 10 years ago

Walk Richmond's water-going history and understand the city a little better.. East of the James River and Kanawha Canal walkways, you'll find a quieter, less elaborately developed spot of equal historical interest. Completed in 1854, the Great Lock connected the navigable part of the James with the Richmond City dock about 10 blocks west. In the 1890s, the Triggs Shipyard tried to establish a shipbuilding center here, in sight of the tobacco warehouses, where the Confederate Navy Yard once stood. In the 1730s, the area was known as Rockett's Landing, a modest and diverse residential riverfront community of free black and Jewish, German, Scotch and Irish immigrants. Today, there stands a small public park where you can walk over the two great locks, once capable of handling sail or steamships 180 feet long and 35 feet wide. Read about their origins and use on nearby markers, or bring along a fishing pole and simply enjoy the view. --Judi Goldenberg