Louisville and Portland Canal - Economic Impact

Economic Impact

Despite complaints from shippers about the high toll and insufficient capacity of the canal, it had a profound impact on the local economy—initially seen as a negative one—due to the loss of traditional portage business from passing boats. An introductory remark in the Louisville Directory of 1844 explained public sentiment towards the canal: "The Louisville and Portland Canal, as constructed and maintained, is precisely one of those improvements for private interests, at the expense of the public good, which is obnoxious to the good of the whole community". Portland and Shippingport, which once rivaled Louisville in economic strength, could not keep pace with it and eventually were annexed by Louisville. Portland became a neighborhood in West Louisville, and Shippingport, made into an island by the canal, would decline slowly for a century before the government bought out the remaining families in 1958.

During the American Civil War, Confederate forces had intended to capture the canal in order to hamper the Union war effort. One officer in the Confederacy suggested destroying it so "future travelers would hardly know where it was".