“From the Archives” — Independence Day, 1828

On Independence Day in 1828, two events occurred that ultimately would attract thousands of Irish immigrants to the United States and to the Alexandria area.

President John Quincy Adams turned a ceremonial shovel of dirt north of Georgetown, signaling the opening of the Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) Canal in Washington, DC. He gave a famous speech comparing the new canal to the pyramids of Egypt. This ground- breaking occurred the same day that Charles Carroll, the richest American of his time, laid the first stone for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. (The two companies later fought over the land from Point of Rocks to Harpers Ferry, but later compromised and shared it.)

As a result, Irish immigrants began to arrive in Alexandria in the period 1830 to 1850 to work on the C&O Canal, the Alexandria Canal and on the railroads.

Over the coming decades, driven by poverty, the potato famine in 1847, religious persecution and laws depriving their children of education, the Irish increasingly saw a bright future for themselves and their families in America. Willing to work hard and at the most menial jobs, they made good citizens. As they climbed the economic ladder, they generously supported their churches and schools, provided the religious orders and dioceses with vocations. They became the largest ethnic group in the Catholic Church in America in the mid-19th century.