Delaware and Raritan Canal

The Delaware and Raritan Canal (D&R Canal) is a canal in central New Jersey built in the 1830s that served to connect the Delaware River to the Raritan River. It was intended as an efficient and reliable means of transportion of freight between Philadelphia and New York City, especially coal from the anthracite coal fields in eastern Pennsylvania.

Route

The main section went between Bordentown, NJ and New Brunswick, NJ; a feeder section stretched 22 miles northward from Trenton, NJ, upstream alongside the Delaware, and was used to feed water from the higher elevation into the highest section of the main canal. (Locks were used to overcome elevation differences along the canal.) The total length of the canal system was approximately 66 miles. The main section was 44 miles long, 75 feet wide and 8 feet deep; the feeder was 22 miles long, 60 feet wide and 6 feet deep.

Construction

The canal system was dug mostly by hand, mostly by Irish immigrants. Work began in 1830 and was completed in 1834, at an estimated cost of $2,830,000. When the canal first opened, teams of mules were used to tow canal boats through it (the steam engine had not yet been introduced). The first steam ships were employed circa 1843.

The canal's greatest usage occurred during the 1860's and 1870's, when it was used primarily to transport coal from Pennsylvania to New York City, which had entered the Industrial Revolution. On May 18, 1872, the D&R Canal Company was merged with several parallel railroads into the United New Jersey Railroad and Canal Company, and leased by the Pennsylvania Railroad. Over time, the importance of the D&R Canal waned as railroads were used to perform, more rapidly, the same function as canals, but it remained in operation until 1932. Years later, the section between Trenton and Bordentown was filled for various road and rail projects, leaving the feeder waters to solely supply the main canal from Trenton northwards to New Brunswick. Two other sections of the canal were piped underground: one in Trenton when the Trenton Freeway (U.S. Route 1) was constructed in 1952, and the other in New Brunswick when the Elmer Boyd Parkway Extension (Route 18) was constructed in 1984.

State Park

In 1974, most of the canal system was declared a New Jersey state park. It remains one today, and is used for canoeing, kayaking, and fishing. A graded natural-surface trail along the side of the canal, which was the tow path that mules used to tow barges on the canal before steam powered barages, is now used for hiking, jogging, bicycling, and horseback riding. Some 36 miles of the main canal, and all 22 miles of the feeder canal, still exist.

The canal is accessible from many points along its route, with small parking areas providing access at most road crossings. One of the most scenic and popular sections of the D&R Canal state park is the segment along Carnegie Lake in Princeton, New Jersey, which features the canal on one side of the path and the lake on the other side. Another attractive section borders the Colonial Park Arboretum and Gardens in East Millstone.

When the canal was used for transportation, New Jersey's landscape was mostly rural, and its primary business was agriculture. "Now," in the words of Howard Green, research director of the New Jersey Historical Commission, "it is one of the most beloved parks in the state, a sinewy, snake-like greenway through one of the most heavily populated parts of the world. It has gone from being the machine in the garden, to being garden in the machine."

Associated rivers

Delaware River - Feeds the Delaware and Raritan Canal via the feeder canal that approaches from the north to the southern terminus near Trenton.
Millstone River - Parallels the Delaware and Raritan Canal from Princeton north to Manville. A flood control study is currently being conducted for the Millstone River basin by two government organizations, which may affect the Delaware and Raritan Canal in the future.
Raritan River - Parallels the Delaware and Raritan Canal from Manville north and east to New Brunswick. The northern terminus of the Delaware and Raritan Canal is in New Brunswick.

National Register of Historic Places

The Delaware and Raritan Canal was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. It is District #73001105. The many historic canal houses where the bridgetenders lived (such as the Blackwells Mills Canal House and the Port Mercer Canal House) are also on the Register.

References

Delaware & Raritan Canal State Park, brochure, New Jersey Division of Parks and Forestry, State Park Service, 7/2002

External links