User:Barbara (WVS)/sandbox/Monongahela Navigation Company

In 1817, the Monongahela Navigation Company was a construction company incorporated by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1817 to "make a lock navigation on the river Monongahela." Though the company experienced engineering and financial challenges it succeeded in building four locks and dams on the Monongahela River by 1844. This allowed for barge traffic between Pittsburgh and Brownsville during favorable river conditions. Records of the company consist of summaries from annual reports (1840-1897) describing damage to dams and locks along the the Monongahela River that were due to floods and ice. Many early records of the company were destroyed in two fires. The remaining documentation was transferred to the U.S. Engineer's Office in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1897. The Monongahela Navigation Company Copybook was acquired by the Darlington family and was donated to the University of Pittsburgh Library system, Special Collections Department.

The company kept records detailing the conditions of its construction, dams and locks providing documentation of early river traffic in Western Pennsylvania.