Virginia Memory, Library of Virginia
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THIS DAY IN VIRGINIA HISTORY

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January 19, 1829

Virginia, Board of Public Works, Rappahannock Company Records, 1816–1858, Accession 30030, Record Group 90, Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

A Procession Was Publicized for the Groundbreaking of the Rappahannock Canal

This broadside, published in Fredericksburg, announced the order of participants in a parade to be held in the city two days later. The festivities were being on the occasion of a ceremonial groundbreaking for work on a canal on the Rappahannock River. Intending to allow barges and other commercial vessels to bypass the shallow and turbulent portion of the river at Fredericksburg, the Rappahannock Company worked on the canal for the next twenty years, and completed it in 1849. It was one of many companies created to improve transportation on the state's waterways by removing obstacles to navigation or constructing canals around them.