Dutch Gap
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Dutch Gap is located on the James River in Chesterfield County, Virginia near the site of the lost 17th century city of Henricus.
In 1611, Sir Thomas Dale, according to a method he had learned while campaigning in Holland, cut across a neck of land a ditch which became known as "Dale's Dutch Gap." This was an attempt to shorten the distance upriver which resulted from the broad meandering stretches of the James River between Drewry's Bluff, where the river turns east into the coastal plain and the confluence of the Appomattox River with the James below Bermuda Hundred.
During the American Civil War, Union troops tried to build a canal at Dutch Gap late in 1864 to cut off a large curl of the James threatened by Confederate forts such as Battery Dantzler. The effort failed during the war, but the canal was completed later and is now the main James River channel.
The Dutch Gap Conservation Area, which includes the archaeological site of Henricus, and an electricity-generating facility of Dominion Virginia Power Company coexist as neighbors on the south shore of the James River at Dutch Gap. Henricus Historical Park is located above Dutch Gap in Chesterfield County (subdivided from Henrico County in 1749).
