Real Water

Arguably conceived in the spirit of "if you build it, they will come," the Richmond Canal Walk has yet to live up to the hype surrounding its inception. Promoted as a catalyst for development and a tourist draw, the canal and its immediate surroundings remain mostly quiet and undeveloped, though picturesque.



The Canal Walk is actually a restoration, of sorts - an attempt to resurrect an urban waterfront that existed in the Nineteenth Century as the main artery of commerce. The canal system in Richmond was actually a series of canals, lock and basins that permitted mule-drawn and manually-powered barges to navigate past the falls in the James River to points west, as well as providing power for industry.

Here is a map of downtown Richmond as it existed in 1876.



Note the extensive network of water in the downtown area - particularly the Central Business District.

In the 1980's the James Center was developed on the site of the largest basin, creating a precinct of unremarkable office towers, mediocre public plazas and surface parking lots.



Suppose the development of post-industrial downtown had maintained these waterways in an extensive form. Arguably, downtown Richmond would be a very different place.