The Delaware Canal (2 page)

Greg Chalson…just because.

Finally, to the historians who keep the stories of the canal era alive through their writing and lectures, especially Lance Metz, Albright G. Zimmerman, C.P. Yoder, James Lee, William H. Shank, Will Rivinus, Terry McNealy, Robert J. McClellan and the New Hope Canal Boat Company, especially “Captain” Dave and his mule driver, Charles.

Chapter 1

Magic Canals

Past and Future

Canals hold a special place in the hearts of the people who live near or work on them. Their tranquil beauty and history inspire protectiveness. Ancient canals are considered sacred, and like the people and organizations in modern times that fight to preserve the canals in their communities, there is evidence that people in medieval times fought just as fiercely to safeguard their own man-made waterways.

Canals are charismatic. People flock to France, England, Germany and other parts of Europe and Asia to vacation on boats that float gracefully down some of the most beautiful and ancient canals in the world, moving through old stone locks, passing orchards, farms and fragrant vineyards.

People who live by canals find themselves walking at a different pace during an early morning or evening stroll. They revel in the vibrancy of colors reflected off the water; they experience a quiet peace from the harmony that exists between the lush vegetation and the wildlife that is sustained by it. There is always something at which to marvel. There is, in fact, something
magical
about canals.

Canals of China

Although irrigation canals have been in existence since the sixth millennium BCE in Mesopotamia and Egypt, and as early as 4000 BCE in other areas of the Middle East, the first transportation canal was built in China in the third century BCE. Called
Lingqu
—“Magic Canal”—it is an impressive achievement in engineering and longevity. When Emperor Qin Shih Huangdi needed a way to transport supplies inland to his armies, he employed the genius of engineer Shi Lu, who built his Magic Canal to link the Rivers Xiang and Li, which ran in opposite directions. The success and durability of the Lingqu laid the groundwork for additional canals in ancient China. Joseph Needham, the author of
Science and Civilisation
[sic]
in China
, noted, “Few if any other civilisations [
sic
] could demonstrate a work of hydraulic art in continuous use for well over two thousand years.”
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Indeed, the Magic Canal is still used today and is considered a sacred waterway, with a dragon as its governing spirit.
²

The Grand Canal of China is the longest ancient canal in the world.
Courtesy of
Istockphotos.com
.

In AD 604, when Yang Guang ascended the throne of China, he ordered the completion of what was to be called the Grand Canal. Measuring 1,115 miles long and 100 miles wide, the Grand Canal was completed in 609, combined many older canals and is, to this day, the longest canal in the world. Its construction supposedly took the work of more than two million men.
³

Roman Aqueducts

Throughout their vast empire, the ancient Romans were industrious aqueduct and canal builders, and these structures are excellent examples of the engineering of the ancient world. They built aqueducts to supply fresh water to the largest cities in their empire, normally routing them below ground to keep the water from being tainted by the lack of sanitary conditions above.

When wars died down during the first two centuries AD, Roman leaders kept their troops occupied with military construction and put them to work improving the previously neglected infrastructures. Roman military engineers were skilled surveyors and designed vast projects in the Roman provinces. They built networks of roads, bridges and canals that opened commerce and cultural influences with many regions that had previously been unreachable. Even Syrians refer to their ancient canals as
qanats Romani
or “Roman canals,” although archaeological evidence and written accounts suggest they were first established by the Persians in Syria.
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The Foss Dyke in England is the oldest canal built by the Romans in that country. It was constructed in AD 120 and, like the Chinese canals, is still in use today, largely for pleasure trips. In contrast to the 1,115-mile-long Grand Canal of China, the Foss Dyke is only 11 miles long, but its history is just as rich. The Danes invaded England by way of the canal, and the Normans used it to carry stone to build the medieval Lincoln Cathedral in 1072. This canal was so important to England's residents that Katherine Swynford, the mistress and eventual third wife of John of Gaunt, the first Duke of Lancaster, organized a protest to repair the Foss Dyke in 1375 after its severe deterioration.
⁵

Canals have been built and used throughout Europe. Some of the most beautiful and photographed canals are in Venice and Holland, where they are even more important than roadways for transportation.

Waterways of America

William Penn wanted a canal system one hundred years before the American Revolution. George Washington thought it was a good idea when he was just a young surveyor. So did Benjamin Franklin. Yet it wasn't until 1800 that canals started to become a means of commercial transportation in the United States.

America was a very young country, with the bulk of our settled land stretching along the Atlantic coast. We needed to push westward to access the rich natural resources that lay beyond the early boundaries of our colonies, but most of the roadways were barely passable—not much more than Native American paths too narrow for wagons.

The industrial use of canals was in full force in Europe late in the eighteenth century. Around 1796, Pennsylvanian Robert Fulton, who invented the first successful steamboat, spent time in England to study its canal systems. He maintained constant communication with George Washington, who was president at that time, and Governor John Mifflin of Pennsylvania. Excited about the achievements in canal building in England, Fulton promoted the establishment of canals in the new country.

His enthusiasm impressed President Washington, who founded the Patowmack Company to make improvements in the navigability of the Potomac River. Once established, the company built canals that skirted the major falls and allowed boats and rafts to float downstream toward Georgetown. Moving
upriver
, against the current, was more difficult, however.

The first notable American canal project began in 1793 with the chartering of the Middlesex Canal in Massachusetts by Governor John Hancock. Upon completion in 1803, this twenty-seven-mile canal connected the Merrimack River with the port of Boston.

New York, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and the Carolinas all began to investigate the viability of man-made waterways. In 1810, New York laid plans to build a canal from Albany to Lake Ontario, but these plans were waylaid by the onset of the War of 1812. When construction began again in 1817, it was decided to change the direction of the canal route and travel to Lake Erie, near Buffalo, bypassing Lake Ontario, where there were still some hostilities. Completed in 1825 and called the Erie Canal, this waterway opened the route from the Hudson River in New York City to the Great Lakes. As a result, New York City suddenly became one of the world's most important seaports, and the “canal age” in this country began in full force with the support of millions of dollars of government money, bonds purchased by foreign banking houses and a few private American investors.

The introduction of canals resulted in the country's first tunnels, launched the need for additional engineering and scientific inventions and set the precedent for eminent domain. But the engineering and building of these first man-made waterways in America was not easy. At the time that the Erie Canal was built, West Point was the only college that offered engineering. Most of America's canals were built by trial and error and were overseen by inventors, lawyers and bankers with no engineering education. Not until the Erie Canal was completed did Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth and other Ivy League schools in the nation introduce engineering courses.

Although very few remnants of the canal age remain intact in this country, at its height there were five thousand miles of canals stretching across the United States that opened trade in major marketplaces for once-isolated farmers and manufacturers. The country's mule-drawn canalboats transported adventurers and immigrants and the goods they needed to expand the nation westward, while cargoes of coal, grain and lumber were brought to the East to feed the Industrial Revolution. The canal age's contribution to the history of this nation is undeniable, even if mostly forgotten.

The Pennsylvania Canals

When King Charles II gave a charter to establish a colony in America to William Penn, it was in payment for a debt owed to Penn's father. The king called the land the “Woods of Penn”—or “Pennsylvania”—and appointed William the proprietor of the land, accountable to the king directly.

A Quaker who had suffered greatly in England because of his conversion to the Society of Friends, Penn longed for a place where people could worship according to their own consciences. He was a man with great vision, deep spirituality, intelligence and idealism. And although he was a modest man who lived according to the dictates of the Society of Friends, he was one of the colonies' greatest diplomats.

Even before leaving for America, Penn had developed the First Frame of Government, which provided religious tolerance as well as secured private property, unlimited free enterprise, a free press and trial by jury. Upon arriving in America in 1682 aboard the
Welcome
, he immediately began plans for the first Pennsylvania city of Philadelphia. When it was completed, it became one of the country's first and busiest seaports.

During that time, Penn proposed another settlement that would be located on the Susquehanna River, where he believed it would be possible to establish a branch of the river that would open up trade and transportation by water to the west and northwest. Unfortunately, the canal he proposed in 1690 was not built.

Shortly after he arrived in the colonies, Penn needed to return to England, and although he directed the progress of Pennsylvania from his estates in Ireland and England, he could not return to Pennsylvania until 1699. Two years later he was again forced to return to England, where Parliament was threatening to terminate his proprietorship. Although he always intended to return to what he considered his home, he never did. Though many of his plans—including the Holy Experiment, as he called it—continued in his absence, William Penn was never to enjoy its success personally.

Between 1762 and 1770, renowned American astronomer, inventor, mathematician and surveyor David Rittenhouse and Dr. William Smith, the provost of the University of Pennsylvania, surveyed the route that connected the Susquehanna and Delaware Valleys that Penn had proposed. That route later became the Union Canal, and in fact was the first canal to be surveyed in the United States, even though it wasn't the first to be built. Construction began in 1792 during George Washington's administration (he turned the first shovel of earth), and approximately fifteen miles were completed. Work stopped on the canal when the company building it suffered financial difficulties, and it did not begin again for twenty-seven years.
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