Great Ship Lock

The first Great Ship Lock was built in 1816 to connect the navigable part of the James River with the Richmond city dock, which extended 10 blocks west. It raised sailing ships and steamboats about 13 feet above the river’s tidewater into the harbor, where they could load and unload cargo safely out of the current. In 1854, the James River and Kanawha Company built the present Great Ship Lock to accommodate ships as large as 180 feet long and 35 feet wide. It opened the city to transatlantic trade and made Richmond a world port. After it opened, trade increased steadily, with packets arriving from New York, Baltimore, and Boston, and traffic through the lock nearly doubled before the Civil War limited trade activity. In 1860, incoming cargoes included coal, iron, fish, oats, lime, salt, and shingles, while outgoing cargoes included flour, wheat, and tobacco.

Richmond, Virginia · United States