Environmental Engineering Reference
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that gained significant political clout before the American Civil War. On the war's eve, the
valley's political economy had begun to shift from favoring men of property—who were
rich in slaves and real estate—to include men of capital who pooled resources and built in-
corporated institutions like mills and factories. 30
The Augusta Canal, 1875. The diversion dam channeled the Savannah River's water through the canal head
gates and the canal's single lock ( upper left corner ) to Augusta. Factories and municipal departments with-
drew water from the canal to drive waterwheels and for water supplies, and they deposited the water back into
the river. Canal vessels could not access the river from the canal in downtown Augusta. In Byron Holly, The
Enlarged Augusta Canal, Augusta, GA: Its Capacity and Advantages for the Manufacture of Cotton Goods,
with Map of Location (New York: Corlies Macy & Co. Stationers, 1875). Courtesy of Hargrett Rare Book
and Manuscript Library, University of Georgia Libraries, Athens.
The Augusta Canal's men of capital also secured their financial resources from various
sources to couple water and power. Since no federal or state funds were available for
canal construction in Georgia, the newly formed Canal Board of Commissioners turned
to Augusta banker William D'Antignac. Through interlocked social and financial relation-
ships, D'Antignac lured additional investors from the Bank of Augusta, Georgia Railroad
Bank, Augusta Insurance and Banking Company, and Bank of Brunswick. Each of the
four entities invested $1,000, and the City Council of Augusta agreed to issue bonds worth
$100,000—and raise city taxes to repay those bonds and to finance construction. 31 By April
1845, construction companies had signed contracts and broken ground on a city waterway
designed to generate waterpower and regulate navigation. Local individuals, entities con-
nected with the Georgia Railroad, and northeastern stonemasons were contracted to build
sections of the canal. Irish laborers, African American slaves, and Georgia citizens per-
formed low-skilled work, and Italians often completed higher-skilled tasks such as masonry
work. 32 When the laborers completed the canal in 1847, it was forty feet wide at the sur-
face, twenty feet wide at the bottom, and five feet deep and ready to move commerce. 33
Cotton may have been king for the financial economy, but this monarchy inflicted serious
damage on the political economy and the environment.
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