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

1877+1910 NS/N&W/Scioto Valley Railroad Bridges over Paint Creek near Chillicothe, OH

(Archived Bridge Hunter; Bridge Hunter returns 403; no Historic Bridges; B&T; Satellite)

Ohio & Erie Canal Overview

Street View, Jun 2024

"The first bridge at this location was built by the Scioto Valley Railroad (SVR) between 1875 and 1877 and was ready for track laying on September 10, 1877. Boatloads of iron for its construction were delivered via the Ohio & Erie Canal." [B&T]

Bridges & Tunnels posted three photos with the comment:

115 years later, this Norfolk Southern bridge still stands strong.

The Columbus District line crosses Paint Creek in Chillicothe, Ohio, on a four-span Warren through truss bridge completed around 1910. It replaced an earlier structure built by the Scioto Valley Railroad in 1877.

📸 More photos: https://bridgestunnels.com/.../paint-creek-railroad.../

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Potomac River Tunnel - Washington DC's "Deep Tunnel"

Metropolitan Water Reclamation District said other cities are emulating their Deep Tunnel solution to keep sewage out of the local waterways. Here is one of them.

$819m [EquipmentWorld]

asce
Washington DC is spending $3b to handle their combined sewer overflows by Mar 23, 2030.
As of Nov 2023, the 23' (7m) purple tunnel is built, and $819m has been awarded to build the 18' (5.5m)  yellow tunnel.
The tunnels are just 80' (24m) to 100' (30m) deep so they encounter a variety of geographic conditions. [Chicago dug their tunnels 300' (91m) deep so that all of their tunnels are through solid rock.] The northern part of the tunnel is mostly in hard rock, and the southern part is in soft ground conditions. Consequently, they are using two different Tunnel Boring Machines (TBMs). The rock TBM is a hybrid that can operate in open and slurry modes. The southern one is "a hybrid version of an earth pressure balance and slurry mode TBM known as a variable density TBM." It "will be used to tunnel initially through rock and then soft ground."

cbnahalmarcleanrivers
Another challenge for the Potomac River Tunnel is that the big drop shafts to support the TBMs are in urban areas with "sensitive" buildings nearby. [I think sensitive means old historic buildings.]

dcwater
Blasting began in May 2025 to build the West Potomac Park Shaft that will be used to launch the TBMs. The northern one is named Mary and will be constructed in the fall of 2025, and the southern one is named Emily and will be constructed in 2026.

Satellite

Deane Lindley posted eight photos with the comment: "Local 77 members working with CBNA-Halmar at the Potomac River Tunnel."

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[I think the green thing on the top of the piling is a vibrator that is used to drive the pile into the ground.]

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Jan 2026:

Equipment World posted
A massive 700-foot [213m] TBM is coming together in D.C. for a 5.5-mile stormwater tunnel. Crews just lowered the 105-ton cutterhead for the $819M Potomac River project. https://ow.ly/NGnt50Y1rMk [registration count of 4]

The TBM is Mary, and it will dig an 18' (5.5m) diameter tunnel. This is just one tunnel of the DC Water's Clean Rivers Project. The tunnels are the only sewage storage, there are no reservoirs. When completed in 2030, it is expected to reduce the volume of overflows into the river by 93% and to reduce the number of incidents from 74 to 4 times in a typical year.

From a video in the above linked article.

Is this the same video? Because of the paycount, I'm not willing to check the article.

Facebook Reel

DC Water commented on their reel
What a beauty!

Closed US-66 Bridge over Meramec River at Eureka, MO

US-66: (Archived Bridge Hunter isn't working correctly; Bridge Hunter; Historic Bridges; Satellite)

I-44: (Satellite)

US-66 Overview

Street View, Sep 2025

HistoricBridges
This 1931 bridge closed in 2009 and the deck was removed in 2013.

Street View, Jun 2023

It goes over a big flood plain.

Chris Koerner, Apr 2021

Drew Walters posted
Route 66 Bridge in Eureka, Missouri, October 17, 2025

Barry Medley, May 2023

Those buildings on the bluff are now the Route 66 State Park Visitors Center.

Postcard via BridgeHunter
Eureka is misspelled

The visitors center appears to have a big gift shop.

Nam H. Nguyen, May 2024

1818+1892+1929,1986 Market Street Bridges over Susquehanna River in Wilkes Barre, PA

1818: (Archived Bridge Hunter; no Bridge Hunter)

1892: (Archived Bridge Hunter; Bridge Hunter)

1929: (Archived Bridge Hunter; Bridge Hunter; no Historic Bridges; HAER; Satellite)

Historic Bridges has several bridges in this county, but not this one. But I consider 1929 to be historic.

Street View, Apr 2019

The covered bridge lasted over seven decades. It was strong enough that street cars were later added.

LostBridges, one-half of a stereoscopic photo.

The steel bridge lasted less than four decades. I noticed in the above street view that this river has some serious levees in town. It looks like they started building them in the 19th Century.

c1905 postcard via BridgeHunter_1892

c1920 postcard via BridgeHunter_1892

Postcard via BridgeHunter_1892

Robert Polachek posted
Elks Home, Sterling Hotel and Market St Bridge Wilkes Barre.  Photo between 1892-1926.

HAER PA-342-6
6. South elevation over Kingston floodplain, looking east from levee. - Market Street Bridge, Spanning North Branch of Susquehanna River, Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, PA

That flood plain is now covered with trees.

Satellite

Significance: The 1929 Market Street Bridge, the fourth and grandest structure to cross the Susquehanna River at this location, reflects the evolution of Wilkes-Barre from an 18th-century agricultural settlement into a thriving metropolis built upon the coal industry. Anthracite fostered urban growth and prosperity, fueling significant early-20th-century civic improvements such as this new bridge. Architecturally, the monumental Beaux Arts-style bridge, designed by nationally prominent New York architects Carrere & Hastings, stands as a gateway to downtown Wilkes-Barre and as one of Pennsylvania's most outstanding concrete bridges.

[HAER_data]

HAER PA-342-5
5. North elevation, looking south from west bank.

I wonder if it is the same tree on the right.

Street View, Aug 2019

The above view made me wonder if they built levees or if the riverbank was naturally high. This view indicates that they built the bridges in the one spot along the river where the bank was naturally high.

Street View, Jul 2019

Robert Polachek posted
Market Street Bridge, Wilkes-Barre, Pa during the 1936 flood.  Looking towards Kingston.

Anonymous participant 759: It was wiped out in the 72 flood.

Barbara Langel Feinblatt: What was especially sad was the zoo animals at Kirby Park. 🥲

At the bottom of this article is mentioned the zoo flooding.

https://cherisundra.com/.../a-monkey-in-the-colliery-the.../

Robert Polachek posted
Market St Bridge Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Looking towards Kingston.