The Delaware and Raritan Canal

Images of America: New Jersey

by Linda J. Barth

For nearly one hundred seventy years, the Delaware and Raritan Canal has meandered across the narrow waist of New Jersey through bustling cities, suburban towns, and rural landscapes. One of the most successful towpath canals in the United States, the Delaware and Raritan carried more tonnage in 1866 than the famous Erie Canal. Transporting mainly anthracite coal, the Delaware and Raritan also stimulated industries as diverse as Roebling's wire-rope factory in Trenton, Johnson & Johnson pharmaceuticals in New Brunswick, and Fleischmann's Distillery in East Millstone. Today, as the centerpiece of the Delaware and Raritan Canal State Park, the canal provides the people of central New Jersey with both a water supply and a premier recreational facility.The Delaware and Raritan Canal introduces you to this manmade waterway through some two hundred historical photographs and postcards. In these pages, discover the locks, aqueducts, and machinery that enabled the waterway to transport military men and supplies between New York and Philadelphia during three wars. See how inventor John Holland used the canal to deliver his Holland VI submarine to Washington for its naval trials and how luxury yachts, including J.P. Morgan's Tarantula, cruised the waterway. The Delaware and Raritan Canal documents a historical and recreational gem in the heart of New Jersey.

128 pages, Paperback

First published September 16, 2002