The Morris Canal (1829–1924) was a

common carrier A common carrier in common law countries (corresponding to a public carrier in some civil law systems,Encyclopædia Britannica CD 2000 "Civil-law public carrier" from "carriage of goods" usually called simply a ''carrier'') is a person or compan ...

anthracite coal Anthracite, also known as hard coal, and black coal, is a hard, compact variety of coal that has a submetallic luster. It has the highest carbon content, the fewest impurities, and the highest energy density of all types of coal and is the hig ...

canal Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface f ...

across northern

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delawa ...

that connected the two industrial canals at

Easton, Pennsylvania Easton is a city in, and the county seat of, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, United States. The city's population was 28,127 as of the 2020 census. Easton is located at the confluence of the Lehigh River, a river that joins the Delaware Ri ...

across the

Delaware River The Delaware River is a major river in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. From the meeting of its branches in Hancock, New York, the river flows for along the borders of New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware, before ...

from its western terminus at Phillipsburg, New Jersey to

New York Harbor New York Harbor is at the mouth of the Hudson River where it empties into New York Bay near the East River tidal estuary, and then into the Atlantic Ocean on the east coast of the United States. It is one of the largest natural harbors in ...

and

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

via its eastern terminals in Newark and on the

Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between Ne ...

Jersey City Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark.water-driven inclined planes, the first in the United States, to cross the northern New Jersey hills. It was built primarily to move coal to industrializing eastern cities that had stripped their environs of wood. Completed to Newark in 1831, the canal was extended eastward to Jersey City between 1834 and 1836. In 1839,

hot blast Hot blast refers to the preheating of air blown into a blast furnace or other metallurgical process. As this considerably reduced the fuel consumed, hot blast was one of the most important technologies developed during the Industrial Revolution. ...

technology was married to

blast furnace A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally pig iron, but also others such as lead or copper. ''Blast'' refers to the combustion air being "forced" or supplied above atmospheri ...

s fired entirely using anthracite, allowing the continuous high-volume production of plentiful anthracite pig iron. The Morris Canal eased the transportation of anthracite from

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

Lehigh Valley The Lehigh Valley (), known colloquially as The Valley, is a geographic region formed by the Lehigh River in Lehigh County and Northampton County in eastern Pennsylvania. It is a component valley of the Great Appalachian Valley bound to the no ...

to northern

's growing iron industry and other developing industries adopting steam power in New Jersey and the New York City area. It also carried minerals and iron ore westward to

blast furnaces A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally pig iron, but also others such as lead or copper. ''Blast'' refers to the combustion air being "forced" or supplied above atmospheric ...

in western New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania (famously, Allentown and

Bethlehem Bethlehem (; ar, بيت لحم ; he, בֵּית לֶחֶם '' '') is a city in the central West Bank, Palestine, about south of Jerusalem. Its population is approximately 25,000,Amara, 1999p. 18.Brynen, 2000p. 202. and it is the capital ...

) until the development of

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lakes ...

iron ore caused the trade to decline. The Morris Canal remained in heavy use through the 1860s. But railroads had begun to eclipse canals in the United States, and in 1871, it was leased to the

Lehigh Valley Railroad The Lehigh Valley Railroad was a railroad built in the Northeastern United States to haul anthracite coal from the Coal Region in Pennsylvania. The railroad was authorized on April 21, 1846 for freight and transportation of passengers, goods, ...

. Like many enterprises that depended on anthracite, the canal's revenues dried up with the rise of oil fuels and truck transport. It was taken over by the state of New Jersey in 1922, and formally abandoned in 1924. Although it was largely dismantled in the following five years, portions of the canal and its accompanying feeders and ponds are preserved. A statewide greenway for cyclists and pedestrians is planned, beginning in Phillipsburg, traversing Warren, Sussex, Morris, Passaic, Essex, and Hudson Counties and including the old route through

Jersey City Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark.National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

on October 1, 1974, for its significance in engineering, industry, and transportation. With The boundary was increased in 2016 to include the

Lake Hopatcong station Lake Hopatcong is a commuter railroad station for New Jersey Transit. The station, located in the community of Landing in Roxbury Township, Morris County, New Jersey, United States, serves trains for the Montclair-Boonton Line and Morristown Lin ...

Landing Landing is the last part of a flight, where a flying animal, aircraft, or spacecraft returns to the ground. When the flying object returns to water, the process is called alighting, although it is commonly called "landing", "touchdown" or ...

. With accompanying 18 photos

Description

On the canal's western end, at Phillipsburg, a

cable ferry A cable ferry (including the terms chain ferry, swing ferry, floating bridge, or punt) is a ferry that is guided (and in many cases propelled) across a river or large body of water by cables connected to both shores. Early cable ferries often ...

allowed Morris Canal boats to cross the Delaware River westward to

, and travel up the Lehigh Canal to

Mauch Chunk Jim Thorpe is a borough and the county seat of Carbon County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. It is part of Northeastern Pennsylvania. It is historically known as the burial site of Native American sports legend Jim Thorpe. Jim Thorpe is ...

, in the anthracite coal regions, to receive their cargoes from the mines. From Phillipsburg, the Morris Canal ran eastward through the valley of the Musconetcong River, which it roughly paralleled upstream to its source at Lake Hopatcong, New Jersey's largest lake. From the lake, the canal descended through the valley of the

Rockaway River The Rockaway River is a tributary of the Passaic River, approximately 35 mi (56 km) long, in northern New Jersey in the United States. The upper course of the river flows through a wooded mountainous valley, whereas the lower course flo ...

Boonton Boonton is a town in Morris County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the town's population was 8,815, an increase of 468 (+5.6%) from the 2010 census count of 8,347, which in turn reflected a decline of 149 (− ...

, eventually around the northern end of Paterson's Garret Mountain, and south to its 1831 terminus at Newark on the

Passaic River Passaic River ( ) is a river, approximately long, in Northern New Jersey. The river in its upper course flows in a highly circuitous route, meandering through the swamp lowlands between the ridge hills of rural and suburban northern New Jersey, ...

. From there it continued eastward across Kearny Point and through Jersey City to the Hudson River. The extension through Jersey City was at sea level and was supplied with water from the lower

Hackensack River The Hackensack River is a river, approximately 45 miles (72 km) long, in the U.S. states of New York and New Jersey, emptying into Newark Bay, a back chamber of New York Harbor. The watershed of the river includes part of the subur ...

. With its two navigable feeders, the canal was long. Its ascent eastward from Phillipsburg to its feeder from Lake Hopatcong was , and the descent from there to tidewater was . Surmounting the height difference was considered a major engineering feat of its day, accomplished through 23 locks and 23

inclined plane An inclined plane, also known as a ramp, is a flat supporting surface tilted at an angle from the vertical direction, with one end higher than the other, used as an aid for raising or lowering a load. The inclined plane is one of the six cla ...

s — essentially, short railways that carried canal boats in open cars uphill and downhill using water-powered

winch A winch is a mechanical device that is used to pull in (wind up) or let out (wind out) or otherwise adjust the tension of a rope or wire rope (also called "cable" or "wire cable"). In its simplest form, it consists of a spool (or drum) attach ...

es. Inclined planes required less time and water than locks, although they were more expensive to build and maintain.

History

Waterloo Village, NJ - Morris Canal and Smith's General Store

The idea for constructing the canal is credited to Morristown businessman George P. MacCulloch, who reportedly conceived the idea while visiting Lake Hopatcong. In 1822, MacCulloch brought together a group of interested citizens at Morristown to discuss the idea. The ''Palladium of Liberty'', a Morristown newspaper of the day, reported on August 29, 1822: "...Membership of a committee which studied the practicality of a canal from Pennsylvania to Newark, New Jersey, consisted of two prominent citizens from each county (NJ) concerned: Hunterdon County, Nathaniel Saxton, Henry Dusenberry; Sussex County, Morris Robinson, Gamaliel Bartlett; Morris County, Lewis Condict, Mahlon Dickerson; Essex County, Gerald Rutgers,

Charles Kinsey Charles Kinsey (1773June 25, 1849) was a U.S. Representative from New Jersey from 1820 to 1821. Early life and career Kinsey was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1773. He attended the common schools, and in early life engaged in the manufactur ...

; Bergen County, John Rutherford, William Colefax ...". On November 15, 1822, the

New Jersey Legislature The New Jersey Legislature is the legislative branch of the government of the U.S. state of New Jersey. In its current form, as defined by the New Jersey Constitution of 1947, the Legislature consists of two houses: the General Assembly and the ...

passed an act appointing three commissioners, one of whom was MacCulloch, to explore the feasibility of the project, determine the canal's possible route, and estimate its costs. MacCulloch initially greatly underestimated the height difference between the Passaic and Lake Hopatcong, pegging it at only . On December 31, 1824, the New Jersey Legislature chartered the

Morris Canal and Banking Company The Morris Canal (1829–1924) was a common carrier anthracite coal canal across northern New Jersey that connected the two industrial canals at Easton, Pennsylvania across the Delaware River from its western terminus at Phillipsburg, New Je ...

, a private corporation charged with the construction of the canal. The corporation issued 20,000 shares of stock at $100 a share, providing $2 million of capital, divided evenly between funds for building the canal and funds for

banking A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Because ...

privileges. The charter provided that New Jersey could take over the canal at the end of 99 years. In the event that the state did not take over the canal, the charter would remain in effect for 50 years more, after which the canal would become the property of the state without cost.

Construction

In 1823, the canal company hired Ephraim Beach, who was originally an assistant engineer on the

Erie Canal The Erie Canal is a historic canal in upstate New York that runs east-west between the Hudson River and Lake Erie. Completed in 1825, the canal was the first navigable waterway connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes, vastly reducing ...

, as its chief engineer, to survey the routes for the Morris Canal. Goller p.12 Construction started in 1824 in Newark, with a channel wide and deep. The canal started from Upper Newark Bay, followed the Passaic River and crossed it at Little Falls, then went on to Boonton,

Dover Dover () is a town and major ferry port in Kent, South East England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies south-east of Canterbury and east of Maids ...

, then the southern tip of Lake Hopatcong, whereupon it went to Phillipsburg. On October 15, 1825, ground was broken at the summit level at the "Great Pond" (i.e. lake Hopatcong). By 1828, 82 of the 97 eastern sections and 43 of the 74 western sections were finished. By 1829, some sections were completed and opened for traffic, and in 1830, the section from Newark to Rockaway was opened. Because the locks could only handle boats of , that meant that through traffic from the Lehigh Canal was impossible, requiring reloading coal at Easton.Drago, p. 119

Design and building of the inclined planes

The vertical movement on the Morris Canal was , in comparison with less than on the

, and would have required a lock every , which would have made the costs prohibitive. James Renwick, a professor at Columbia University, devised the idea of using inclined planes to raise the boats in , instead of using about 300 lift locks, since a lift lock of that time typically lifted about . In the end, Renwick used only 23 inclined planes and 23 locks. Lock dimensions were originally wide and long Renwick's original design seems to have been to have double tracks on all inclined planes, with the descending caisson holding more water; thus, the system theoretically would not have needed external power. Goller p. 11 Nevertheless, the inclined planes were built with overshot water wheels to supply power. The early planes were done by different contractors and differed greatly. In 1829, the canal company hired

David Bates Douglass David Bates Douglass (March 21, 1790 – October 21, 1849) was a civil and military engineer, who worked on a broad set of projects throughout his career. For fifteen years he was a professor at the United States Military Academy, and after his ...

from West Point, who became the chief engineer of the planes. He supervised the construction of the remaining planes to be built and also altered the already built planes. The inclined planes had a set of tracks, gauge about , running from the lower level up the incline, over the crest of the hill at the top, and down into the next level. Tracks were submerged at both ends. A large cradle, holding the boat, ran on the tracks. Iron overshot waterwheels originally powered the planes. The Scotch (reaction) turbines, which later replaced the overshot water wheels, were feet in diameter and made of cast iron. They could pull boats up an 11% grade. The longest plane was the double-tracked Plane 9 West, which was long and lifted boats up (i.e. 6% grade) in 12 minutes. The total weight of the boat, cargo, and cradle was about . The Scotch turbines produced (for example, on Plane 2 West) 235 horsepower using a head of water and had a discharge rate of per minute. Some turbines were also reported to develop 704 horsepower. The winding drum was in diameter and had a spiral grove of pitch. The rope was fastened on both ends to the drum, and there was a clutch that allowed the direction of the wheel to be reversed. The plane had two lines of steel rails, with a gauge of from center of rail to center. Rails were wide at top and high, and weighed . The cradle had a brake, in case the load went downhill too fast. Descent was also checked by the plane-man by putting about half power through the turbine. The water was fed into the turbines from below, thus relieving friction on the bearings and balancing them. A comparison of Plane 2 West (Stanhope), which had a lift, with a flight of 12 locks yields the following: the plane took 5 minutes 30 seconds, and consumed of water lifting a loaded boat. Locks , meaning of water per lock) would consume for 12 locks (about 23 times more water) and would take 96 minutes. The

Elbląg Canal Elbląg Canal (; pl, Kanał Elbląski ; german: Oberländischer Kanal) is a canal in Poland, in Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, in length, which runs southward from Lake Drużno (connected by the river Elbląg to the Vistula Lagoon), to the river ...

, one of Seven Wonders of Poland, used the Morris Canal's technology as inspiration for its inclined planes; for that reason, the inclined planes on that canal strongly resemble those on the Morris Canal. The Newark Eagle reported in 1830:

The machinery was set in motion under the direction of Major Douglass, the enterprising Engineer. The boat, with two hundred persons on board, rose majestically out of the water; in one minute it was upon the summit, which it passed apparently with all the ease that a ship would cross a wave of the sea. As the forward wheels of the car commenced their descent, the boat seemed gently to bow to the spectators and the town below, then glided quickly down the wooden way. In six minutes and thirty seconds it descended from the summit and re-entered the canal, thus passing a plane one thousand and forty feet long, with a descent of seventy feet, in six and one half minutes.

An English visitor,

Fanny Trollope Frances Milton Trollope, also known as Fanny Trollope (10 March 1779 – 6 October 1863), was an English novelist who wrote as Mrs. Trollope or Mrs. Frances Trollope. Her book, ''Domestic Manners of the Americans'' (1832), observations from a t ...

, in her 1832 book '' Domestic Manners of the Americans'', wrote of the canal:

We spent a delightful day in New Jersey, in visiting, with a most agreeable party, the inclined planes, which are used instead of locks on the Morris canal. This is a very interesting work; it is one among a thousand which prove the people of America to be the most enterprising in the world. I was informed that this important canal, which connects the waters of the Hudson and the Delaware, is a hundred miles long, and in this distance overcomes a variation of level amounting to sixteen hundred feet. Of this, fourteen hundred are achieved by inclined planes. The planes average about sixty feet of perpendicular lift each, and are to support about forty tons. The time consumed in passing them is twelve minutes for one hundred feet of perpendicular rise. The expense is less than a third of what locks would be for surmounting the same rise. If we set about any more canals, this may be worth attending to. This Morris canal is certainly an extraordinary work; it not only varies its level sixteen hundred feet, but at one point runs along the side of a mountain at thirty feet above the tops of the highest buildings in the town of Paterson, below; at another it crosses the falls of the Passaic in a stone aqueduct sixty feet above the water in the river. This noble work, in a great degree, owes its existence to the patriotic and scientific energy of Mr. Cadwallader Colden.Trollope, Fanny, ''Domestic Manners of the Americans'', Ch. 30.
/ref>

=Orange Street Inclined Plane

= In 1902, after a fatal crash between a Delaware and Lackawanna railroad train and a streetcar, the railroad grade was lowered (to the level it occupies today) and the Morris Canal had to make an electrically driven incline plane to bring boats up and over the railroad and Orange street, and then back down into the canal, with a pipe to carry the water across the break.

Aqueducts

Several aqueducts were built for the canal: the Little Falls Aqueduct over the Passaic River in Paterson, New Jersey, and the Pompton River Aqueduct, as well as aqueducts over the Second and Third river The longest level was , from Bloomfield to Lincoln Park; the second-longest, from Port Murray to Saxon Falls. The aqueduct over the

Pohatcong Creek Pohatcong Creek (also called the Pohatcong River) is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed April 1, 2011 tributary of the Delaware River in northwestern New Jersey in the United ...

at the base of Inclined Plane 7 West is now used as a road bridge on Plane Hill Road in Bowerstown.

Opening of the canal

On November 1, 1830, before the whole canal was finished, the eastern side of the canal between Dover and Newark was tested with several boats loaded with iron ore and iron. These went through the planes without incident. On May 20, 1832, the canal was officially opened. The first boat passing entirely through the canal was the ''Walk-on-Water'', followed by two coal-laden boats went from Phillipsburg all the way to Newark. This initial section (not counting the Jersey City portion, which was done later) ran and cost $2,104,413 ().

Operating years

Morris Canal, Scotch Turbine Display - general view

Soon after opening, it became apparent that the canal had to be widened and had to be extended across to the New York Bay across Bayonne. Early boats, called "flickers," could only carry 18 tons. By 1840 the company had finished enlarging the locks, canal, and planes, and finished building the extension to Jersey City. Boats were divided in two, hitched with a pin, as were the trucks (cradles) on the inclined planes.Drago p. 120 The enlarged locks' dimensions were now wide and long. The original company failed in 1841 amid banking scandals, and the canal was leased to private bidders for three years. Goller p.7 The canal company was reorganized in 1844, with a capitalization of $1 million. The canal bed was inspected, and improvements were made. First, the places where seepage occurred were lined with clay, and two feeders were dug, to Lake Hopatcong and to Pompton. The inclined planes were rebuilt with wire cabling. Banking privileges were removed in 1849, leaving the company as a canal-operating business only. By 1860, the canal had been progressively enlarged to accommodate boats of . Traffic reached a peak in 1866, when the canal carried of freight (equivalent to nearly 13,000 boatloads). Between 1848 and 1860, the original overshot

water wheel A water wheel is a machine for converting the energy of flowing or falling water into useful forms of power, often in a watermill. A water wheel consists of a wheel (usually constructed from wood or metal), with a number of blades or buckets ...

s that powered the inclined planes were replaced with more powerful water turbines. The locks and inclines planes were also renumbered since some had been combined or eliminated. Boats of were now long, wide, and drew of water. Freight figures are as follows:

Cargo

The Morris canal carried coal, malleable pig iron, and iron ore. It also carried grain, wood, cider, vinegar, beer, whiskey, bricks, hay, hides, sugar, lumber, manure, lime, and ice. Although it is said that the Morris Canal was mainly a freight canal and not a passenger canal, some boats on the Morris Canal did offer "Cool summer rides accompanied by a shipment of ice". Additional cargo include scrap metal, zinc, sand, clay, and farm products. Iron ore from the Ogden Mine was brought to Nolan's Point (Lake Hopatcong). In 1880 the canal transported 1,700 boatloads (about ) of iron ore. Thereafter, competition from

taconite Taconite () is a variety of iron formation, an iron-bearing (over 15% iron) sedimentary rock, in which the iron minerals are interlayered with quartz, chert, or carbonate. The name "taconyte" was coined by Horace Vaughn Winchell (1865–1923) � ...

ore in the

Lake Superior Lake Superior in central North America is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface areaThe Caspian Sea is the largest lake, but is saline, not freshwater. and the third-largest by volume, holding 10% of the world's surface fresh wa ...

region brought a decline in New Jersey

bog iron Bog iron is a form of impure iron deposit that develops in bogs or swamps by the chemical or biochemical oxidation Redox (reduction–oxidation, , ) is a type of chemical reaction in which the oxidation states of substrate change. O ...

Working hours

The plane tender of Plane 11 East reported that during the operating days, boats would tie up at night up to a mile above the plane, down another mile to Lock 15 East (Lock 14 East in the old 1836 numbering), and then about a mile below Lock 14 East. They would start putting boats through starting around 4 a.m. (dawn), and go all day long until 10 p.m., often handling boatmen who had gone through that morning, unloaded in Newark, and were returning.

Decline

The canal's profitability was undermined by railroads, which could deliver in five hours cargo that took four days by boat. In 1871, the canal was leased by the

, which sought the valuable terminal properties at Phillipsburg and Jersey City. The railroad never realized a profit from the operation of the canal. By the early 20th century, commercial traffic on the canal had become negligible. Two committees, in 1903 and 1912, recommended abandoning the canal. Goller p. 8 The 1912 survey wrote, "...from Jersey City to Paterson,

he canal He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...

was little more than an open sewer ... but its value beyond Paterson was of great importance, no longer as a freight transit line but as a parkway." Many of the existing photographs of the working canal were shot as part of these surveys, as well as by other people who wanted photographs of the canal before its demise. In 1918, the canal company filed a lawsuit to block the construction of the

Wanaque Reservoir Wanaque Reservoir is a man-made lake located within Wanaque and Ringwood, New Jersey along the Wanaque River. The reservoir came into being in 1928 by the construction of the Raymond Dam along the river in Wanaque. Besides the Wanaque River, th ...

in Passic County, asserting that the reservoir would divert water needed for the Pompton feeder. The company won the suit in 1922, but the victory was Pyrrhic; the canal was now viewed as an impediment to the development of the area's water supply. On March 1, 1923, the state of New Jersey took possession of the canal; it shut it down the following year. Over the next five years, the state largely dismantled the canal: the water was drained out, banks were cut, and canal works destroyed, including needlessly dynamiting the Little Falls aqueduct. The Newark City Subway, now Newark Light Rail, was built along its route.

Canal today

The Morris Canal Historic District was added to the

New Jersey Register of Historic Places The New Jersey Register of Historic Places is the official list of historic resources of local, state, and national interest in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The program is administered by the New Jersey's state historic preservation office with ...

in 1973 and to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 1974. The canal was listed as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in 1980. Portions of the canal are preserved. Waterloo Village, a restored canal town in Sussex County, has the remains of an inclined plane, a guard lock, a watered section of the canal, a canal store, and other period buildings. The Canal Society of New Jersey maintains a museum in the village. Other remnants and artifacts of the canal can be seen along its former course. On the South

Kearny, New Jersey Kearny ( ) is a town in the western part of Hudson County, New Jersey, United States and a suburb of Newark. As of the 2010 United States Census, the town's population was 40,684,Lincoln Highway The Lincoln Highway is the first transcontinental highway in the United States and one of the first highways designed expressly for automobiles. Conceived in 1912 by Indiana entrepreneur Carl G. Fisher, and formally dedicated October 31, 191 ...

, now U.S. Route 1/9 Truck, the cross-highway bridges for Central Avenue and the rail spur immediately to its east were built to span the highway and the canal, resulting in spans that today seem unnecessarily long. The inlet where the canal connected to the Hudson River is now the north edge of Liberty State Park, and the right-of-way of the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail follows the canal for part of its length..

Morris Canal Greenway

The

North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority The North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority (NJTPA) is the federally authorized metropolitan planning organization (MPO) for the 13-county northern New Jersey region, one of three MPOs in the state. NJTPA's annual budget is more than $2&nb ...

is developing the Morris Canal Greenway, a group of passive recreation parks and preserves along parts of the former canal route. Parks along the greenway include: * Peckman Preserve *

Pompton Aquatic Park Pompton Aquatic Park is a riverside park that spans the border of Wayne and Pompton Lakes in Passaic County, and the Pompton Plains section of Pequannock Township in Morris County, New Jersey, United States. A total of are situated within Pa ...

* Wayne Township Riverside Park * Walking path in

Lincoln Park Lincoln Park is a park along Lake Michigan on the North Side of Chicago, Illinois. Named after US President Abraham Lincoln, it is the city's largest public park and stretches for seven miles (11 km) from Grand Avenue (500 N), on the south, ...

Gallery

File:Morris Canal entrance arch (Phillipsburg, N.J.).jpg, Delaware River Portal, canal entrance, Phillipsburg File:Morris-Canal-Lock-Waterloo-Village.JPG, Lock 3 West, Waterloo Village File:Morris Canal, Lock 7 West - Bread Lock.jpg, Foundation of the Lock Tender's House at Lock 7 West, the "Bread Lock" File:Morris Canal Aqueduct, Plane Hill Road, Bowerstown, NJ.jpg, Aqueduct over the

by Inclined Plane 7 West, Bowerstown File:Retaining Wall, Old Bowerstown Road, Bowerstown, NJ.jpg, Sleeper stones from Inclined Plane 7 West used as the base of retaining wall File:Morris Canal, Inclined Plane 9 West, Port Warren, NJ - tailrace tunnel.jpg, Tailrace tunnel at Inclined Plane 9 West, Port Warren File:Morris Canal, Inclined Plane 2 East - looking north.jpg, Remains of Inclined Plane 2 East near Ledgewood File:Waterloo Village, NJ - Morris Canal, ASCE plaque.jpg, National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark plaque for the hydraulic-powered inclined plane system of the Morris Canal near Inclined Plane 4 West File:Morris Canal, Inclined Plane 4 West, Waterloo Village, NJ - looking northwest.jpg, Inclined Plane 4 West, looking toward Waterloo Village

Historic images

Image:Inclined_Plane_9_West_near_port_Warren_from_HABS.png, Inclined Plane 9 West, Port Warren, the longest plane, raising boats 100'. One of three double-tracked planes allowing boats to ascend and descend at the same time. The others are 6 West (Port Colden) and 12 East (Newark). image:Summit_Level_of_Morris_Canal_from_HABS.png, Summit level at Lake Hopatcong. image:Tailrace_of_Inclined_Plane_2_East_on_Morris_Canal_from_HABS.png, Tailrace of Plane 2 East. Water from the turbine comes out from the left. Water on the right is from the bypass flume. image:Inclined_Plane_12_East_on_Morris_Canal_from_HABS.png, Inclined Plane 12 East, in Newark. This is the third double-tracked plane. image:Lift bridge at Grove St Jersey City on Morris Canal from HABS (cropped).png, Lift bridge at Grove Street in

Jersey City Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark.Pequannoc Spillway * Pompton dam * Waterloo Village *

Cornelius Clarkson Vermeule II Major Cornelius Clarkson Vermeule II (September 26, 1895 – August 7, 1943) was the director of the Public Works Administration in New Jersey, United States. He also succeeded his father, Cornelius Clarkson Vermeule Sr., as Engineer in Charge ...

Henry Barnard Kümmel Henry Barnard Kümmel (1867 - October 23, 1945) was a State Geologist for the State of New Jersey during the 20th century who worked extensively in the management of the Morris Canal after its acquisition by New Jersey. Biography Kümmel was bor ...

Delaware Canal The Delaware Division of the Pennsylvania Canal, more commonly called the Delaware Canal, runs for 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 ...

- A canal feeding urban Philadelphia connecting with the Morris and Lehigh Canals at their respective Easton terminals. *

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 an efficient and reliable means of transportation of freight between Philadelp ...

– A later New Jersey canal carrying mostly coal from the Delaware River to New York and northeastern New Jersey, and iron ore from New Jersey up the Lehigh. *

Chesapeake and Delaware Canal The Chesapeake & Delaware Canal (C&D Canal) is a -long, -wide and -deep ship canal that connects the Delaware River with the Chesapeake Bay in the states of Delaware and Maryland in the United States. In the mid‑17th century, mapmaker Au ...

– A canal crossing the

Delmarva Peninsula The Delmarva Peninsula, or simply Delmarva, is a large peninsula and proposed state on the East Coast of the United States, occupied by the vast majority of the state of Delaware and parts of the Eastern Shore regions of Maryland and Virginia. ...

in the states of

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent ...

and

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean t ...

, connecting the

Chesapeake Bay The Chesapeake Bay ( ) is the largest estuary in the United States. The Bay is located in the Mid-Atlantic region and is primarily separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the Delmarva Peninsula (including the parts: the Eastern Shore of Maryland / ...

with the

Delaware Bay Delaware Bay is the estuary outlet of the Delaware River on the northeast seaboard of the United States. It is approximately in area, the bay's freshwater mixes for many miles with the saltwater of the Atlantic Ocean. The bay is bordered inland ...

. *

Delaware and Hudson Canal The Delaware and Hudson Canal was the first venture of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, which would later build the Delaware and Hudson Railway. Between 1828 and 1899, the canal's barges carried anthracite coal from the mines of northeast ...

- Another early built coal canal as the American canal age began; contemporary with the Lehigh and the Schuylkill

navigations Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flo ...

. * Lehigh Canal – A sister canal in the Lehigh Valley that fed coal traffic to the Delaware Canal via a connection in

. * Schuylkill Canal - Navigation joining

Reading, PA Reading ( ; Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Reddin'') is a city in and the county seat of Berks County, Pennsylvania, United States. The city had a population of 95,112 as of the 2020 census and is the fourth-largest city in Pennsylvania after Philadel ...

and Philadelphia. * Paterson Great Falls * Lake Hopatcong

General references

Notes

References

External links