Wednesday, October 7, 2026 · 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Medford Public Library — 111 High St., Medford, MA
Local filmmaker Roger Hagopian presents his new film, Journey Along the Middlesex Canal . It documents the history and traces the route of the Middlesex Canal today, including its passage through Medford. While the Erie Canal has become well-known in the annals of American history, the Middlesex Canal, built two decades earlier in 1803 and a model for canal engineers throughout young America, has only recently become recognized for its important achievements. Extending 27 miles northeast from Boston harbor to the Merrimack River near present-day Lowell, Massachusetts, the Middlesex Canal provided low-cost and efficient freight transport for almost five decades, helping to establish the canal in the U.S. as a viable means of economic development. The building of the Middlesex Canal also served as a proving ground for an American practice of civil engineering. Its construction, for example, saw one of the first uses of telescopic leveling devices in America, the first innovations in cement-making, the first experiments in “puddling” canal banks to make them water-tight, and the first use of dump carts to speed excavation. While the canal never turned a profit for its private…