The Delaware Division of the Pennsylvania Canal, more commonly called the Delaware Canal, runs for parallel to the right bank of the Delaware River from the entry locks near the mouth of the Lehigh River and terminal end of the Lehigh Canal at Easton south to Bristol. At Easton, which today is the home of The National Canal Museum, the Delaware Canal also connected with the Morris Canal built to carry anthracite coal to energy-starved New Jersey industries.
Later, with a crossing-lock constructed at New Hope, the New Hope 'outlet lock' (1847) connected by Cable Ferry to enter at Lambertville, NJ; where it connected to a feeder navigation/canal that began at Bull's Island opposite Lumberville; which then ran over south along the New Jersey bank of the Delaware River through Trenton to Bordentown, the west end of the Delaware and Raritan Canal (1834) to New York City via New Brunswick. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania built the Delaware canal to feed anthracite stone coal to energy-hungry Philadelphia as part of its transportation infrastructure building plan known as the Main Line of Public Works—a legislative initiative creating a collection of self-reinforcing internal improvements to commercial transportation capabilities.
The Delaware Canal, like the Lehigh Canal, was primarily meant to carry anthracite coal and other bulk goods such as gravel and limestone, cement, and lumber—from northeastern Pennsylvania to Philadelphia. In reverse flow, the two canals carried manufactured goods, iron products and (a few decades later) steel products to the northeastern cities. The Delaware and Lehigh Canals also connected from Easton by ferry services across the Delaware River to New Jersey and the Delaware and Raritan Canal, connecting industrial loads to New York City.
First opened in 1832, the Delaware Canal still has most of its original locks, aqueducts, and overflows.<ref name=NPS></ref> Although the two canals reached their peak shipping in 1855, after which coal transport down the Lehigh corridor was taken up increasingly by railroads, the canals stayed in operation until the Great Depression in the early 1930s. According to the National Park Service, it was the "longest-lived canal in the country".
History
The Pennsylvania Canal system was spurred by the early success of the Erie Canal in New York State, which had opened in 1825. Construction on the Delaware Canal started in 1829, accomplished entirely with hand tools using primarily imported labor from Ireland.
The canal runs down a channel dug parallel to the Delaware River from Easton to Bristol, Pennsylvania; its line of travel is generally within sight of the river. Originally in length, the canal is approximately wide with a depth of about .
After the original construction failed in 1830, it had to be re-engineered by Josiah White of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, who had offered to engineer and build the Delaware Canal for a break in fees in 1824. The state sold the canal to the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company in 1858.
The Delaware Canal took over the easy part of the journey for the coal barges transiting down the rapids strewn path of the Lehigh Valley from Mauch Chunk and the heights of Nesquehoning, Pennsylvania and the huge coal fields that connected beyond them. Millions of tons of coal traveled from Wilkes-Barre down the Lehigh Valley transportation infrastructure, then finished the journey on the Delaware Canal's barges.
But competition from the railroad led to a decline in barge traffic. By the 1920s, anthracite coal was waning as a source of fuel. The last commercial through traffic traveled the canal in October 1931 and the bankrupt Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company sold the canal back to the state for a nominal fee.
In 1933, a private group called The Delaware Valley Protective Association (DVPA) was founded to protect the canal as a historic asset. The DVPA persuaded the state to resume maintenance of the canal in 1940, when its towpath became Theodore Roosevelt State Park. The berms were restored and the canal was refilled with water.
Through the 1940s and 1950s, the canal was left mostly untouched. In the early 1960s, however, Pennsylvania officials explored plans to pave over the canal and create a road for cars. Local residents fought for the canal's protection. In 1964, Bucks County historian and DVPA member Willis M. Rivinus wrote the first Guide to the Delaware Canal to call attention to the canal's value.