What became the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal was once a creek along a narrow strip of land between the Chesapeake Bay and the Delaware River. As early as the 17th century, settlers and business leaders recognized that connecting these two bodies of water could shorten travel between Baltimore and Philadelphia by more than 300 miles. After early financial and engineering setbacks, construction began in earnest in 1824, with about 2,600 men digging and hauling dirt by pick and shovel for an average daily wage of 75 cents. In 1829, the canal opened for business as one of the most expensive canal projects of its time and one of the most commercially important, a role it still holds today as one of the world’s busiest canals and one of only two sea-level commercial canals in the U.S.