beyond that amount was to be invested in improving the railroad rather than rewarding shareholders. A second part of the charter heavily curtailed the voting power of larger shareholders – each shareholder got one vote per share for their first fifty shares, but additional shares granted just one vote per twenty shares. In effect, this made it impossible for any one shareholder to control the company, no matter how many shares they owned. Both provisions were designed to ensure the P&W provided effective rail service and remained in the hands of local shareholders. As their first order of business, the company's founders commissioned engineer Thomas Willis Pratt to complete a survey of the proposed route, which was completed in the fall of that year. The two companies were merged November 25, 1845, as the Providence and Worcester Railroad. The company bought the Blackstone Canal and began construction, partly on its banks, in 1845. The canal was shut down in 1848, shortly after the railroad was completed. Delays in construction Local enthusiasm was high for the new railroad, with one Providence resident quoted as saying "[it is] not so much what will the projected route add to the prosperity of Providence, as can we do without it?" The city's residents feared that without a railroad to connect their city to others, Providence would be reduced in importance compared to other cities in the region. Despite high local support, in July 1845, the railroad was still short $200,000 ($ in 2021) out of a needed sum of $1,000,000 ($ in 2021) per the company's charter, and had not begun construction. Residents began to doubt the railroad would ever be built, with one citizen writing in a letter to the editor to a local newspaper that "...any hope of its completion, founded upon the present condition of the corporation, is desperate indeed." By September 1845, residents worried over rumors that investors from Boston were planning to build a new railroad between Woonsocket, Rhode Island, and Dedham, Massachusetts, which would not serve Providence. Despite fears the company would fail, it announced on October 8, 1845, that thanks to additional funding, including a $100,000 ( in 2021) investment by Jacob Little, the requisite $1,000,000 had been reached, plus a further $100,000 for the Massachusetts section of the line, and that construction would begin immediately. The funding was obtained entirely from private sources. Construction and operations