Delaware and Raritan Canal
The Delaware and Raritan Canal is a canal in central New Jersey, built in the 1830s, that connects the Delaware River to the Raritan River. It was an efficient and reliable means of transportation of freight between Philadelphia and New York City, transporting anthracite coal from eastern Pennsylvania during much of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The canal allowed shippers to cut many miles off the existing route from the Pennsylvania Coal Region down the Delaware, around Cape May, and up the occasionally treacherous Atlantic Ocean coast to New York City.
A section of the canal as seen from a footbridge in 2013
The canal's terminus in New Brunswick, New Jersey
This section of the Trenton Freeway was built directly over the canal, which still flows underneath
The canal lock with a dam constructed in place of the upper gate, 2005
The Delaware River is a major river in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States and is the longest free-flowing (undammed) river in the Eastern United States. From the meeting of its branches in Hancock, New York, the river flows for 282 miles (454 km) along the borders of New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware, before emptying into Delaware Bay.
The Delaware River flowing through the Delaware Water Gap in 2021
The Delaware River is named in honor of Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr
A 1655 Swedish nautical chart showing part of the Delaware River when the river was part of the Swedish colony New Sweden
East Branch of the Delaware River near Margaretville, New York