When we think about New Jersey infrastructure, we usually picture highways, rail lines, ports and pipelines. But long before route one or the Northeast Corridor Railroad, there was another transportation spine running quietly through the heart of the state. It was hand dug. It reshaped cities, and it still matters today. This is the story of the Delaware and Raritan Canal.
Transcript
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When we think about New Jersey infrastructure, we usually picture
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highways, rail lines, ports and pipelines.
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But long before route one or the Northeast Corridor Railroad,
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there was another transportation
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spine running quietly through the heart of the state.
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It was hand dug.
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It reshaped cities, and it still matters today.
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This is the story of the Delaware and Raritan Canal.
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The idea of cutting a canal across
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New Jersey is older than the United States itself.
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In 1676, William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania, proposed creating
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a water route across what he called the narrow waist of New Jersey.
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His goal was ambitious a protected inland passage connecting Philadelphia
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to New York Harbor, avoiding the dangerous Atlantic route.
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Penn even ordered a survey to see if it was possible
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to cut away across the country to Sandy Hook.
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No record survives that the survey ever happened, but the idea never disappeared.
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For the next hundred years, the concept slipped quietly
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while colonies grew, fought a revolution, and became a nation.
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But by the early 1800s, America turned its attention
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to internal improvements, and New Jersey found itself at the center of everything.
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By the 1820s, enthusiasm for a canal linking
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New York and Philadelphia reached a fever pitch.
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But there was a problem. Railroads.
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New Jersey lawmakers were split between canal supporters and railroad advocates.
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Each side was powerful, and each side blocked the other.
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The stalemate ended in 1830 with a uniquely New Jersey compromise.
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The legislature chartered both and then merged them,
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creating a canal rail partnership known as the Joint Companies.
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The Delaware and Raritan Canal Company and the Camden and Amboy Railroad.
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Construction on both began the same year.
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By 1833, the railroad was running from Bordentown to South Amboy.
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Parts of the canal opened at the same time, but the full canal
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wouldn’t be completed until 1834.
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On June 25th, 1834, the canal officially opened.
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Governor Peter Dumont’s room boarded a ceremonial barge
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for a two day journey across the state.
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At every lock and bridge, crowds cheered.
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In New Brunswick, he was greeted with a 24 gun
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salute and a brass band parade through the city.
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The canal itself formed a giant meandering “Y” across new Jersey,
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44 miles from Bordentown to New Brunswick,
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a 22 mile feeder canal from Raven Rock to Trenton.
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The engineering was remarkably sophisticated.
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The feeder canal was six feet deep and 50ft wide.
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The main canal was seven feet deep.
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Later expanded to eight and 75ft wide.
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Seven locks lifted boats up to Trenton.
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Seven more brought them back down to sea level at the Raritan River.
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Stone riprap lined the banks to prevent erosion.
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Swing bridges pivoted sideways so vessels of any mast height could pass.
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By 1868, even the locks were powered by steam, and once built,
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the canal barely needed modification for the next century.
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But this achievement came at a price.
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Most of the canal was dug by hand by Irish immigrant laborers.
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In 1832, cholera swept through the work camps.
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Dozens, possibly hundreds, died.
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They were buried in unmarked mass graves
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at Bull’s Island, Ten Mile Run and Griggstown.
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In 2003, a granite monument
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cut from a former canal lock was dedicated to their memory.
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It stands today as a reminder that infrastructure is built
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not just with money and materials, but with human lives.
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A canal journey from Bordentown to New Brunswick
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took nearly two days, but that was revolutionary.
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Before the canal, shipping goods from Philadelphia
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to New York by sea could take two weeks.
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The canal transformed cities at its ends.
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Trenton’s population quadrupled.
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Ironworks, ceramic factories and manufacturers surged in.
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But the canal’s greatest beneficiaries were New York and Pennsylvania.
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Pennsylvania anthracite coal destined for New York’s
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furnaces and homes became the canal’s lifeblood.
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At its peak in 1871, nearly 3 million
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tons of freight passed through the canal, more than the Erie Canal carried
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That same year.
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And it wasn’t just canal boats, sailboats, steam tugs, yachts,
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and even naval vessels passed through this narrow waterway.
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Ironically, the canal’s decline
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began with its own partner in 1871.
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The Pennsylvania Railroad leased the canal and its rail connection
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for 999 years.
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From that moment on, canal traffic steadily fell.
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Railroads were faster.
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They ran day and night.
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They didn’t freeze in the winter.
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By 1893, the canal was operating at a loss and never recovered.
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Some historians believe the railroad intentionally starved
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the canal of maintenance while favoring rail shipments with lower rates.
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In 1933, the canal closed for the winter.
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It never reopened.
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Four years later, ownership reverted to the state of New Jersey.
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Yet the canal wasn’t finished.
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As industry spread out in the 1930s and 40s.
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They needed water and the canal could provide it cheaper than wells.
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So the canal reinvented itself, not as a transportation
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corridor, but as a water supply system.
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Parts were filled in, including a section in Trenton that became route one.
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Other sections were modernized with concrete structures,
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steel gates, and improved flow systems.
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In 1973, the canal was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
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One year later, Citizen Advocacy helped create the Delaware
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and Raritan Canal State Park.
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Today, more than a million people visit the canal each year.
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It’s a recreational corridor, a conservation link,
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a historic landmark, and it still supplies water to industry.
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Agriculture and drinking
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water systems serving nearly 1 million New Jersey residents.
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This canal helped build city’s power industry
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and shaped the economy of an entire region.
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The Delaware and Raritan Canal reminds us
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that infrastructure doesn’t disappear when its original purpose ends.
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When we preserve it, adapt it, and understand its history.
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It continues to serve us in ways its builders could never have imagined.
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And that’s why our infrastructure matters.
