Schuylkill Canal is the common, but technically inaccurate, name for the Schuylkill Navigation, a 19th-century commercial waterway in and along the Schuylkill River in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The "canal" was actually a system of interconnected canals and slack-water pools in the river, which is called a navigation. The Schuylkill Navigation opened in 1825 to provide transportation and water power. At the time, the river was the least expensive and most efficient method of transporting bulk cargo. It fostered the mining of anthracite coal as the major source of industry between Pottsville and Eastern markets.