In January 1827, the Ohio State Legislature chartered the Pennsylvania & Ohio Canal Company to build an east-west canal connecting north-south canals in Ohio and Pennsylvania. The route ran from the Beaver Canal in Pennsylvania to the Ohio & Erie Canal in Akron, and in Ohio it passed through Youngstown, Warren, Leavittsburg, Newton Falls, Ravenna, and Akron. Specifications required the canal to be no less than 28 feet wide at the bottom, no less than 40 feet wide at the waterline, and at least four feet deep, with towpaths at least 10 feet wide and 2.5 feet above the water. Mules or horses towed canal boats at about 4 miles per hour. Packet boats carried passengers and, in 1856, fares were 1-2 mills per mile, while freight boats carried pig iron, lumber, ore, and limestone. This readily available transportation began turning the Mahoning Valley into an industrial powerhouse. Railroad competition arrived in the 1850s, and in 1854 the Cleveland and Mahoning Railroad, which later became part of the Erie Railroad, bought control of the canal. In 1872 the canal was abandoned, and trains followed its route through the Mahoning Valley.