“The Englewood Canal” This channel is a reminder of an 1860s plan

to build a canal linking Englewood with Overpeck Creek and the to transport fruits, vegetables, and other goods. It was never completed.

It was difficult to transport goods over the dirt roads of this area in the mid-19th Century. Farmers who wanted to sell their fruits and vegetables had to lug them by mule- or ox-drawn carts over roads that were muddy in bad weather and dusty in dry weather.

Earlier in the century, people began to build canals to make transportation of people and goods easier. The mid-1800s was the high point for canals in the . Perhaps the most famous was the Erie Canal. Built between 1817 and 1825 to connect the and Lake Erie, it provided the first fast, safe way to reach the Midwest. It facilitated the largest mass migration in American history, changing the nature of our country. Hundreds of thousands pf people left the East Coast to settle in Ohio, Indiana, Minnesota, and other states.

Because most of the original forests of the Eastern Woodlands had been cut down, cities such as might have withered away from a lack of fuel were it not for the discovery of coal in Pennsylvania and canals built across to transport the coal. Remains of the Delaware and Raritan Canal and the Morris and Essex Canal can still be visited.

It should not be a surprise that people in Englewood wanted to get into the canal business. In the 1860s, a company was formed to build a small canal linking the center of Englewood from Palisade Avenue with Overpeck Creek and the Hackensack River. The goal was to provide an easier route to transport fruits and vegetables to markets in Newark and New York, as well as bring lumber, coal, and other merchandise to Englewood.

Overpeck Creek was widened and deepened, but the canal was never completed. One main reason was that the owner of a saw mill on the stream refused to sell his property. Another was that the Northern Railroad eliminated the need for the canal.

The channel along the east side of Mackay Park running south into Overpeck Park is a remnant of the planned canal. It has been straightened and lined with concrete to serve as one of the main ways to remove water after heavy rainfall events. Downtown Englewood frequently flooded after heavy rainstorms. Much of the Fourth Ward was originally a lake and remained swampy into the 1940s and ‘50s. Lattimer devotes a chapter in This Was Early Englewood to the flood history and eventual remediation. Beginning in the 1940s, City Engineers and the US Army Corps of Engineers resolved many of the issues with a combination of the concrete walls seen today along Overpeck Creek by Mackay Park and southward, and an expanded storm sewer drainage system and pumps. Bergen County built tide gates where Overpeck Creek joins the Hackensack River to prevent floodwaters from backing up during extreme events. These are near where the crosses Overpeck. The creek was also dredged to create the beginnings of what is now Overpeck Lake.

Over the years, rubbish and other materials have accumulated in the channel, as images below show. But during Earth Day 2018, volunteers from the Hackensack Riverkeeper and Apple, Inc (Willowbrook Office) joined with the Englewood Environmental Commission to begin cleaning the stream. Perhaps someday it can be used for kayak and canoe recreation.

For more information:

J.A. Humphrey (1899) Englewood, Its Annals and Reminiscences. pp. 125 – 126.

A.W. Sterling (1922) The Book of Englewood. pp. 99 – 100.

J.K. Lattimer (1990) This Was Early Englewood. pp. 180 – 187.

Images of the “canal” channel today south of Forest Ave. and Route 4.

Feb 2018 –Images of the some of the waste accumulated in the canal

By the Route 4 bridge

Along the banks south of Route 4

Earth Day 2018 – Clean-up efforts sponsored by the Englewood Environmental Commission, Hackensack Riverkeeper, and volunteers from Apple (Willowbrook Office.)