Chesapeake & Delaware Canal, Pump House, South side of Chesapeake & Delaware Canal, Chesapeake City, Cecil County, MD

Significance: The two high-pressure, single cylinder beam engines, built by Merrick & Sons of Philadelphia, are the earliest American built stationary steam engines on their original foundations in the United States. The arrangement of the steam engines driving a 39 foot diameter lift wheel that supplied water to the summit level of the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal also is unique. The physical plant, consisting of the steam engines, lift-wheel and the buildings that housed them, is essentially complete (except for the boilers that supplied steam to the engines), and represents an innovative 19th century engineering design.
Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: FN-10
Survey number: HAER MD-39
Building/structure dates: 1854 Initial Construction
National Register of Historic Places NRIS Number: 66000390