It is the only canal in the US in continuous use for its original purposes of providing power, transport, and municipal water.

During the time of construction, the city's Canal Commission was headed by Henry Harford Cumming.

Cumming personally paid railroad engineer John Edgar Thomson to conduct the initial survey for the project.

The 28 buildings, which were the only ones designed, constructed, and paid for by the government of the Confederate States of America, stretched for 2 miles (3.2 km) along the Augusta Canal.

Other war industries were established along or near the canal, making Augusta an important center for materiel.

Many people who lived on farms moved to the city to work at the mills, including women and children.

By 1892, Augusta boasted both electric streetcars and street lights — the first Southern city to have these amenities.

Following major floods in the 1920s and 1930s, the Federal Works Progress Administration deployed hundreds of workers to make repairs and improvements, build a new spillway and to straighten the canal.

In 1993, the Authority issued a comprehensive Master Plan, outlining the Canal's development potential.

In late 2003 and early 2004, two modern-day Petersburg boats, inspired by the cargo vessels that once plied the canal with bales of cotton and farm goods, began operation for guided tours.