Ohio River Canalization

Issued on October 19, 1929 to commemorate the completion of the Ohio River Canal between Cairo, Illinois and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The project was started in 1875 to improve riverboat navigation on the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio rivers which was unreliable, often treacherous and sometimes impossible. Through a series of locks and dams, the 967 mile waterway became a safe transportation mode, especially for shipments of steel from Pittsburgh, a major producer of steel at the time.