THE DELAWARE & RARITAN CANAL: 175 YEARS AND COUNTING hat’s 66 miles long, 75 feet expansion that followed it, the 1860s The business of the canal was to serve wide, and 175 years old? and 1870s were the most profitable business. All along the route, canalboats WYou’ve probably guessed years for the waterway. In fact, in 1866, delivered Pennsylvania anthracite coal to that it’s the Delaware and Raritan Canal, a record 2,990,000 tons were shipped factories, homes, and coal yards in New the best kept secret in Central New through the waterway—more tonnage Jersey, New York harbor, and points Jersey. than was carried in any single year on north and south. They brought farm This long, narrow, state park is a the much longer and more famous Erie products to market; carried store-bought peaceful haven for the residents of this, Canal. goods to residents in the interior; the most densely populated state in the Anthracite coal was the chief cargo delivered raw materials to factories; and nation. The D&R offers miles of transported on the D&R. It was distributed finished products to outlets wooded towpaths and gently flowing shipped from the coalfields of throughout the region. Businesses along water where visitors can walk, jog, bike, northeastern Pennsylvania to Easton, via the canal included food packing fish, take photographs, birdwatch, ride the Lehigh Canal, or to Philadelphia, via companies, rubber reclaiming plants, horses, cross-country ski, canoe, kayak, the Schuylkill Canal. From Easton, distilleries, coal yards, quarries, lumber or just sit and enjoy the quiet. But the boats proceeded south on Pennsylvania’s yards, pharmaceuticals, terra cotta, D&R Canal is much more than just a Delaware Canal to the outlet lock just wallpaper manufacturers, farms, and nature park. It is the engine that sparked below New Hope and crossed the many more. the industry and the economy of Delaware River on a cable ferry. The This great waterway follows the 19th-century central New Jersey. river’s current carried the boats across in centuries-old transportation corridor From its opening in 1834, the either direction. From Philadelphia, across the narrow waist of New Jersey. D&R was a commercial success. canalboats were towed up the Delaware In prehistoric times, the Lenape Due to the Civil War and the River to enter the D&R Canal at followed trails across this route to Bordentown. harvest seafood along the shore. The by Linda J. Barth Can New Jersey’s Missing Link be Restored? O Linda Barth O GardenStateLegacy.com Issue 5 O September 2009 ANTHRACITE COAL FIELDS N.Y. Stoddartsville N.J. White Pennsylva The Delaware & Haven LEHIGH NAVIGATION Raritan Canal Delaware River ANTHRACITE N.J. Mauch Chunk (red) was an COAL FIELDS MORRIS CANAL Easton important part of Newark SCHUYLKILL Phillipsburg a larger network Allentown Delaware River River Bethlehem New Brunswick of canals (blue) DELAWARE DIV. Raritan designed primarily Reading DELAWARE UNION NAVIGATION Pennsylvania Trenton ScchuylkillScc River & RARITAN to move anthracite CANAL RiverR coal from the iver Bristol mines in Philadelphia Pennsylvania. Delaware River Pennsylvania Delaware Maryland Wilmington earliest stage routes traversed this right- water into a 22-mile feeder, which was steamboat to the harbor at New York or of-way between New York and dug parallel to the Delaware. The water Philadelphia, and then ocean-going Philadelphia. Here, too, the Camden & then flows downstream and joins the vessels that sailed the seven seas. As part Amboy Railroad first laid its track main canal in Trenton, providing enough of the Intracoastal Waterway, the D&R between Bordentown and South Amboy. water to fill the canal’s forty-four miles. Canal connected the Chesapeake Bay Since this was the flattest and easiest In addition to being a water conduit, the with New England ports. And why not crossing of the Garden State, it was feeder was navigable by canalboats. again? Thirty-six miles of canal are still natural that canal supporters proposed Traffic on the feeder greatly increased watered, and five locks are still intact. this route for a waterway. after changes were made in the 1840s, We have studied examples of canal The D&R, a 44-mile, artificial allowing boats to cross the Delaware on renaissance in the United States and the waterway, crossed New Jersey, a cable ferry and enter the canal at United Kingdom. Following a long life connecting Philadelphia and New York. Lambertville. as a successful commercial artery, the Boats entered the canal near Bordentown Once an integral part of the East Forth & Clyde Canal in Scotland was on the Delaware River. Traveling north Coast’s Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway, closed in 1963. After years of requests through seven locks, the vessels were the canal is now the missing link. from recreational boaters, British lifted fifty-eight feet to the summit Thousands of boaters and canal Waterways (the organization that cares (highest point of the canal) in Trenton. enthusiasts ask, “Why not again? Why for 2,200 miles of the country’s canals Seven more locks lowered the boats to not reopen this vital waterway to and rivers) reopened the Forth & Clyde tidewater at New Brunswick, on the through navigation? Why not shorten in 2001. The agency was careful to Raritan River. the long ocean voyage around Cape May consult with neighborhood groups to And where does all of the water come by 274 miles?” discuss where closed sections might be from? The Delaware River is the major Why not again be connected to the rerouted. All major roads that cross it source of water for the D&R Canal. At world? Canalboats once took you to the once permitted full mast headroom by Bulls Island (Raven Rock), north of ports of Bordentown and New using rolling or swing bridges and the Stockton, a wing dam in the river diverts Brunswick. From there you boarded a minor roads used bascule bridges. Many Can New Jersey’s Missing Link be Restored? O Linda Barth O GardenStateLegacy.com Issue 5 O September 2009 have been renovated, replacing fixed many years ago, boats would have to in the 1940s, but never built. Another spans that had been built when the canal continue upstream on the Raritan to possibility is the use of truck carriers to was closed. Innovative thinking created Landing Lane. Here they would enter transport vessels to the Delaware River; new solutions: at Dalmuir a drop lock the canal via a new lock. Road bridges we have seen such vehicles used along lowers vessels under the road and raises that cross the canal would have to be the Ottawa River in Ontario. them on the other side, eliminating the raised or replaced with moveable spans. Why should the Delaware and need for a moveable bridge. At Falkirk, a Gates must be installed in locks 8 Raritan Canal be reopened to through flight of eleven locks had once through 12; during this phase, water navigation? In the U.K., boaters are a connected the Forth & Clyde with the would continue to flow through bypass boon to the economy. Regenerated Union Canal. Instead of rebuilding the canals and recreational boating on the locks, the engineers were told to come British canals brings $2 billion to the up with a visionary solution, creating a Falkirk Wheel. communities along the water and the truly spectacular and fitting structure economy of Great Britain. Boaters that would act as an iconic symbol for patronize restaurants, marinas, tourist years to come. That solution was the attractions, banks, grocery stores, and Falkirk Wheel fuel suppliers. Workers in the (www.thefalkirkwheel.co.uk). construction trades would be employed In Illinois, the Friends of the to rebuild the locks and bridges. Hennepin Canal are planning the Locktenders, bridgetenders, and reopening of their canal, with maintenance crews would provide more cooperation from the state and local channels, since the canal is an active jobs. A reopened canal would allow safe officials. A state park like the D&R, the reservoir, delivering drinking water to passage for vessels that now must Hennepin also connects two rivers. customers along the route. Navigation navigate the dangerous “graveyard of the When it is again navigable, this would continue from Landing Lane Atlantic” along the New Jersey coast. waterway will be a valuable short-cut for through Lawrence Township. In Trenton, And East Coast boaters would have new boaters on the Mississippi and Illinois the waterway continues under U.S. places to explore in the Garden State. rivers. Route 1 for about a mile. Farther In conclusion, bear in mind the slogan Of course, changes will have to be downstream it is filled in and covered by we saw on a canalboat tied up in a made to make the D&R navigable again. Route 129. Several solutions can be quaint English village: “Remember, Instead of entering the canal at New considered. Engineers could use the canals were made for boats.” Brunswick, where the prism was filled in route planned for a modern ship canal Can New Jersey’s Missing Link be Restored? O Linda Barth O GardenStateLegacy.com Issue 5 O September 2009.