page_title: Pennsylvania Canal (Delaware Division)
hierarchical_section_title: Pennsylvania Canal (Delaware Division)
caption_attribution_description: English: Map of (what later became) the lower division of the 44 miles of the original Navigations (1818-1820) improving water transport on the Lehigh River. Built and maintained by the Lehigh Coal &amp; Navigation Company, the Navigation was commonly known as the Lehigh Canal. The map shows the Lehigh Canal as it was near the end of its life in the 1930's, not as it was originally configured in 1818-1820. As originally re-constructed in 1827-1829, the canal had 49 lift locks and 8 dams and guardlocks. Two of the guard locks, at dams 2 and 5, were lift locks and are included in the count of the lift locks. Improvements to the canal eliminated lock numbers 12, 21, 38, 48, and 49. A ninth dam was built at the mouth of the Lehigh River, and the canal outlet was moved approximately 2,200 feet upstream of locks 48 and 49. This map of the lower division of the Lehigh Canal was constructed from the following sources: Pennsylvania Department of Transportation Highways, 2010 2010 Tiger/Line shapefiles for New Jersey counties 2007 National Transportation Atlas Database highways National Hydrography Dataset National Elevation Dataset Federal Agricultural Adjustment Administration aerial photography in the 1930's (available online at PennPilot) Pennsylvania State Parks dataset The base maps were assembled, and the AAA aerial photos were used to locate the canal channel and its dams and locks. The AAA photos were orthorectified prior to plotting the features.
context_page_description: The Delaware Division of the Pennsylvania Canal, more commonly called the Delaware Canal, runs for 60 miles 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' connected by Cable Ferry to a feeder navigation/canal at Bull's Island along the opposite shore from Lumberville, which ran over 22 miles south along the left bank through Trenton to Bordentown, the west end of the Delaware and Raritan Canal 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.
context_section_description: The Delaware Division of the Pennsylvania Canal, more commonly called the Delaware Canal, runs for 60 miles (97 km) 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 a feeder navigation/canal at Bull's Island along the opposite shore from Lumberville, which ran over 22 miles (35 km) south along the left bank 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 the "fuel of choice" of the day, 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. 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".
caption: This is a map of the lower 44.6 miles (71.8 km) division (the original) of Lehigh Canal, which was a navigation built parallel to the course of the Lehigh River. The Delaware Canal, in comparison, was a ditch dug parallel to the main banks of the Delaware River and, although about 35% longer, had only half as many levels. Barge crews preferred the Delaware over the Lehigh because they could go faster, farther, longer before having to go through locks again.
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