From www.loudounhistory.org:
In 1832 an elaborate scheme was launched to improve Goose Creek and Little River with "slack water" navigation in order to capture the "wagon trade from the Valley" and "provide cheap transportation to market ... for the product of the many flouring mills then in operation on the waters of Goose Creek" (Harrison, p. 551). This close proximity to water transportation would certainly have benefitted Waterford as well, since goods would have to be hauled overland less than ten miles. Survey work was not completed until 1849; by then, the Manassas Gap Railroad was already in place to more efficiently handle the same traffic. That, combined with the tremendous cost overruns of the initial construction, caused the demise of the Goose Creek Canal after only the first lock was completed.