Previously, a horse-drawn tramway, the Leiper Railroad, carried stone from the quarry for 18 years before the opening of the canal.

However, the Legislature of 1824 were of a different mind, and were unbiased by reports of failed attempts to improve the Schuylkill River (a series of failures, back to 1764) as they were debating parts of the Main Line of Public Works omnibus transportation package of bills, and the project, once ranked a crackpot idea, was in 1824 simply stylish.

In light of the big projects contemplated to link Philadelphia by canal with Pittsburgh and Erie, Pennsylvania]] and Lake Erie, the Pennsylvania general court speedily approved a second canal proposal by Thomas Leiper, and the construction project was carried out by his son.

Completed in 1828 to haul stone in flat-bottomed boats from his quarry near Springfield Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, to the navigable Delaware River at Eddystone, industrialist George Leiper financed the canal based on a dream of his father, using it when completed to replace the animal powered Leiper Railroad between 1829 and 1852.

[5] The system, which had three locks, replaced an industrial railway built in 1810 by the elder Leiper when he failed to obtain a right-of-way charter for any canal; operated by his family, the horse-drawn industrial railroad carried the families stone goods until the canal, which could carry heavier loads, received legislative blessings and was completed in 1828.