continued from part 4. "The final trouble that the canal involved came in constant quarrels between the boatmen and the various mill owners over the water itself. The latter were drawing just enough water for their manufacturing to ruin the boatmen's business, and there was many a near riot over the matter. Mill owners even went so far as to tip loads of rocks into the locks so that the barges could not pass through and the boatmen threatened to set fire to the mills. All this trouble might have been avoided had enough money been raised in the first place so that the canal company could have controlled all the water rights. But matters went from bad to worse, and in 1848 the last toll was collected on barges. Before that time portions of the canal had been closed to passage. Providence auctioned off the boathouse terminal, and the following year the locks and land as far as Woonsocket were sold. Taking the place of the canal was the new railroad, connecting the same two towns and giving rise to the remark that of 'the two unions between Worcester and Providence, the first was weak as water -- the last strong as iron.' One can still trace the route of the old canal as it follows along the Canal Street, by the American Screw Company's works, and under Randall Street. Farther out in the country it becomes distinct for various intervals, disappearing entirely where it has been filled in. It was a noble experiment, one which could easily have been more fruitful in its results, and we might have seen the picturesque barges moving slowly along today through the Lower Blackstone River Valley." for more info: http://www.woonsocket.org/canal.html http://www.worcesterhistory.org/ex_blackstone.html http://www.blackstonedaily.com/RG-chuck.htm