1800's, and newer, Canals Overview

Interactive Canals Map

Metrotrails posted

A good overview of the historic canals of the northeastern United States. 

As a group we have traced all of the Morris Canal, Delaware and Raritan Canal, Union Canal, Schuylkill Navigation, Lehigh Canal, Delaware Canal, and Delaware and Hudson Canal.

We have traced sections of the Pennsylvania Canal (all of Susquehanna Division, Juniata Division, and Allegheny Portage Railroad), parts of Western Division, North Branch Canal, Susquehanna and Tidewater, Erie, Champlain, Blackstone, New Haven & Northampton, and more than half of Chesapeake and Ohio. 

Each has been amazing.

Vince Gargiulo: So out of the group how many used inclined planes?

Metrotrails: Vince Gargiulo Morris Canal had 23, 24 if you count the electric one. I understand there was one connected to the Potomac. Other than that no inclined planes on the canals themselves. The early connection railways had them, but it wasn't the same. The most were on Delaware and Hudson Gravity Railroad. Second most on Pennsylvania Coal Company Gravity Railroad. Allegheny Portage Railroad had 10, Philadelphia and Columbia had 2. Lehigh and Susquehanna had 3. Mauch Chunk had 2 main, several connecting. Many early anthracite lines had them.

Comments on the above post

Comments on the above post

This is why the Erie Canal sparked such a canal building frenzy in the Midwest before the railroads made them obsolete.

Unify posted

"Why is patience so important?"

"Because it makes us pay attention."

— Paulo Coelho

Paul Petraitis shared

Old, and some newer, canals that I have noted:

• Welland
• Illinois & Michigan
• Miami & Erie
• Wabash & Erie and Whitewater
• Ohio & Erie and Muskingum River
• Hennepin/Illinois & Mississippi
• Erie
• Beaver & Erie
• C&O
• Lower Fox River and Milwaukee & Rock River
• Kentucky River
• Pennsylvania Union
• Morris
• Delaware and Raritan
• Lehigh Navigation
• Sandy and Beaver Canal

1829 Lehigh Canal (Navigation) Overview

The Lehigh Canal was built to facilitate transporting anthracite coal to eastern markets. It went just to Easton, PA, on the Delaware River because from there other canals connected to New York and Philadelphia. Before navigation was improved along the Lehigh River, it was cheaper to ship bituminous coal from England than anthracite coal from the Lehigh Valley. "The Lehigh Navigation project began in 1827 and was completed in 1829. The canal was 60 feet wide at the top and 45 feet wide at the bottom and was 5 feet deep. There were a total of 48 lift locks over the Lehigh Navigation’s 46-mile route from Mauch Chunk (presently Jim Thorpe) to Easton. Ten miles of this route was made up of slack water pools (Hugh Moore Historical Park and Museums)." [lehigh_canal]

lehigh, cropped

• Lock #1
• Lock #47

 

Lehigh Canal Lock #1 in Jim Thorpe/Mauch Chunk, PA

(Satellite)

Lehigh Canal Overview

National Canal Museum posted

This color postcard of Mauch Chunk, sent in 1913 to DLNHC Historian Martha’s grandmother in Connecticut, shows a view familiar to many tourists who once visited the “Switzerland of America” in search of cool breezes and a thrilling ride on the Switchback Railroad.

But to us canal geeks, who scrutinize old images like these for clues about the operation of the Lehigh Navigation, this is a fascinating picture. That brown swath of dirt at the bottom of the postcard is the dry bed of the Lehigh River! Yet, curved around the base of Bear Mountain is the Lehigh Canal, filled to the brim with six feet of blue-gray water.

How did this happen? On the left side of the picture is Dam No. 1. It backed up the waters of the Lehigh so the river was deep enough for canal boats loaded with 100 tons of anthracite coal, and water and the boats could be fed into Lock No. 1 of the canal. Apparently, the summer this postcard photo was shot was a dry one, so there was only enough water in the river behind the dam to feed the canal.

Matthew Shäfferz: Sewer plant is there today.

1922/52 Mauch Chunk Quad @ 62,500

Lehigh Canal Lock #47 in Easton, PA

(Satellite)

Mark Madson, Jul 2019

I got the lock number of #47 from this post. Note that a bulkhead has been added between 2019 and 2025 at the upstream gate location to remove the water pressure on the wooden gate.

Metrotrails added

Lehigh Canal Lock 47, Easton Pa.

This was historically a double lock, and one of them had been kept in good repair for many years as part of Hugh Moore Park. Unfortunately, it appears to be in rough condition and braced up today.

The nearby railroad bridge is the abandoned Lehigh Valley Bridge.

Satellite via Dennis DeBruler