Receiving its charter in 1824, the Savannah-Ogeechee Canal connected the Ogeechee watershed with the port of Savannah. Construction on the sixteen-mile route began in 1826 and was completed in 1830, and employed six locks between the canal terminals and an aqueduct (still visible west of Stiles Avenue on private property about five hundred feet south of Louisville Road) that crossed over a drainage canal. A number of industries once fronted the canal; most processed lumber brought from the Ogeechee River. Canal operation continued despite growth of the railroads, but its stagnant waters were increasingly viewed by city officials as a health liability. Finally, during the 1880s, the Central of Georgia acquired canal property adjoining the Savannah River to create a subsidiary—the Ocean Steamship Company, now the Georgia Port Authority’s Ocean Terminal—located just west of the Talmadge Memorial Bridge (1.14). Near the opposite end of the canal, the Savannah-Ogeechee Canal Museum at 681 Argyle Road documents the canal’s history and includes a well-preserved lock.