Built in 1845 as a source of power, water and transportation, the Augusta Canal is the only intact industrial canal in the American South in continuous use. During the Civil War it was the site of the Confederate State of America Powderworks complex. Deepened and widened in the 1870s, the canal brought an industrial boom to the city, especially in textile manufacturing. In 1975 the Canal and its mills were listed on the National Register of Historic Places and declared National Historic Landmark in 1978. In 1996 the United States Congress designated the Augusta Canal and nearby land a National Heritage Area. Several canal-side structures pre-date the War Between the States and others to the later 19th Century and the heyday of America's Industrial revolution. A "National Heritage Area" is a place designated by the United States Congress where natural, cultural, historic and recreational resources combine to form a cohesive, nationally-distinctive landscape arising from patterns of human activity shaped by geography. These areas tell nationally important stories about our nation and are representative of the national experience through both the physical features that remain and the traditions that have evolved within them.