Salem Beverly Waterway Canal

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Map of the Salem Beverly Waterway Canal.

View of the canal.

The Salem Beverly Waterway Canal, sometimes called the Grand Wenham Canal, is a canal in Topsfield and Wenham, Massachusetts.

The canal was built in 1917 to provide water for Beverly, Massachusetts and Salem, Massachusetts, and is owned with its adjacent land by the Salem-Beverly Water Commission. It was dredged and widened in 1974, with corduroy roads built on each side of the canal. Trees were felled along the canal, and fill dumped on the fallen trees, to create the roads. The canal carries water from the Ipswich River, Topsfield, through the Wenham Swamp to Wenham. From there, a pipeline also constructed in 1917 carries it on to Wenham Lake. Public trails alongside the canal may be accessed from Wenham.