Hennepin Canal Parkway State Park preserves the Hennepin Canal, a northwestern Illinois waterway built to shorten the route between the Illinois and Mississippi rivers. Though the canal idea dated to 1834, construction did not begin until September 19, 1890, after decades of political struggle and planning, and it opened in 1907. Its concrete locks, numerous railroad and highway bridges, and feeder canal from the Rock River reflected major engineering ambition. Yet commercial traffic never met hopes as railroads had already gained the advantage. Later abandoned for commerce, the canal survived as a recreational corridor and historic landscape, with its full route now recognized on the National Register of Historic Places.