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Reviews
| Pennsylvania's Delaware Division Canal: Sixty Miles of Euphoria and Frustration. By Albright G. Zimmerman. Easton, Pa.: Canal History and Technology Press, 2002. ix+240 pp., maps, illus., tables, notes, appendix, index. $32.95 pb (ISBN 0-930973-26-7).
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In many ways the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania undertook the most ambitious program of canal construction in the U.S. in the early-19th century. The emphasis was on an east-west route to compete with the Erie Canal: the Pennsylvania Main Line. Lateral canals, such as the Delaware Canal, were needed if only to provide votes to sustain the entire canal program. In the first half of this book, Albright "Zip" Zimmerman tells the story of the construction and operation of the Delaware Canal, along the Delaware River, extending 60 miles southeast from Easton to Bristol, Pennsylvania, the most profitable of all the State of Pennsylvania-built canals.
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Not that the Delaware Canal did not have its problems. Influenced by William Strickland and his trip to view the narrow canals of England, Pennsylvania's Board of Canal Commissioners decided to build the locks of the Delaware Canal only half the width of the locks of its principal anthracite supplier, the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company (LC&N), ensuring that the larger boats on the LC&N slack-water navigation couldn't be used on the Delaware Canal. Begun in 1827, the Delaware Canal was completed by 1830—although the section of the canal between Easton and New Hope was unable to hold water. Josiah White, on loan from the LCN, fixed this and other construction problems. Periodic flooding took its toll, as well as a general lack of water along the lower stretch, despite the large lifting wheels built by the company south of New Hope.
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In 1855 more than 700,000 tons of coal entered the canal, the peak year. In 1858, along with its other canals, the state sold the canal to a private company, the Delaware Division Canal Company. Competition from railroads and trucking reduced tonnage carried, and by the 1920s the Delaware Canal was only supplying coal to the coal yards along its course. In 1931 it entirely ceased operations.
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In addition to this story, Zimmerman tells the second story of the Delaware Canal, the preservation of the canal and the development of an important scenic and recreational amenity. After the canal closed as a coal hauler, there were numerous threats to its existence, including the damage done by the 1936 and 1940 floods and the possibility that a portion might be filled in and used as a highway. In 1940 the canal was transferred to the state. Following World War II the state began work to restore the canal as a state park, its present status.
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Both stories are of much interest to us today. In many ways the Delaware was the quintessential 19th-century American canal. Its successes and failures were mirrored by other American canals. Its preservation is also of interest to those in SIA engaged in heritage corridors or canal park developments.
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| Zimmerman is the ideal author for this work. He has studied this canal for the past four decades, has lived along its banks, and is the past president of the Pennsylvania Canal Society as well as the author of numerous articles and reports relating to the Delaware and other Pennsylvania canals. Zimmerman's prose is accompanied by a large number of historic photographs unavailable elsewhere. Unfortunately, we do not have any drawings of Delaware Canal innovations such as the New Hope lift wheels. Built in 1832, repaired in 1880, these lift wheels remained in operation until 1923, providing 3,500 cubic feet of water per minute to the lower canal. This, however, is a minor criticism. Zimmerman, supported by the Canal History and Technology Press and the Friends of the Delaware Canal, has produced a solid book worthy of attention. |
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