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Delaware and Raritan Canal Commission

Historical Photos

This colorized postcard shows the aqueduct that conveys the Delaware and Raritan Canal over Parkside Avenue in the City of Trenton

Prior to the creation of Lake Carnegie, an aqueduct was needed to convey the Delaware and Raritan Canal over the Millstone River. When Lake Carnegie was completed in 1906, the lake rose to within a few feet of the canal. The wooden walkway on the left was built to allow mules and their drivers to cross the aqueduct.

The steam tug Lottie B is seen towing a canalboat toward New Brunswick near the Railroad Hotel along Alexander Road in Princeton. The hotel, later named the “Steamboat Hotel” when the railroad was relocated to Princeton Junction, served canal workers and merchants conducting business at the factories and establishments of the nearby Princeton Basin.

This photograph depicts a scene from the Coalport section of Trenton, where anthracite coal from Pennsylvania was loaded on canalboats from a trestle located next to the canal and shipped to communities in the New York-New Jersey harbor area.

The canalboat F.W. Brune is seen exiting the summit of the canal at the State Street Lock (Lock No. 7) in the City of Trenton and heading south to Bordentown.

In 1863, the main line of the Pennsylvania Railroad was realigned and bypassed the Borough of Princeton, instead locating its station at nearby Princeton Junction. A three-mile Princeton Branch Line began service in 1865, carrying university students and commuters to New York and Philadelphia via the main line. The Princeton Branch, known today as the “Dinky,” crossed the Delaware and Raritan Canal using a swing bridge. Note the curved extension of the towpath on the bottom left of the photograph, which allowed the mules pulling canal boats to pass around the bridge support without having to unhitch towlines. (Photograph from Carl Crawford)

A scene from the Kingston Lock. The building on the right is the Hoffman House, a popular hotel that was located along the Kings Highway.

In his book, The Delaware and Raritan Canal: Pictorial History, William J. McKelvey, Jr. notes that while the Delaware and Raritan Canal pioneered the use of steam-powered vessels in America, mule-drawn boats were employed almost until the canal’s closure. Large stables were located at Bordentown and at Griggstown.

This picture provides an excellent view of the Delaware and Raritan Canal aqueduct over the Millstone River in Plainsboro Township before the Millstone was impounded to create Lake Carnegie.

This photograph shows bridgetender John Arrowsmith standing in front of his home in the Port Mercer section of Lawrence Township. Mr. Arrowsmith tended the Port Mercer swing bridge from 1900 until the canal’s closure in 1932. Today, the home serves as the headquarters of the Lawrence Historical Society.

Rowers from Princeton University practicing in the Delaware and Raritan Canal prior to the creation of Lake Carnegie. The team’s racing shells were stored in a boat house located immediately north of Bridge No. 15 at Washington Road. (Photograph reproduced courtesy of the Princeton University Archives)

This view from the “Dinky” swing bridge in Princeton provides a clear view of the canal towpath.

This image depicts Lock 1 and the southern terminus of the main canal in Bordentown. The white building is the toll collector’s office of the Delaware and Raritan Canal Company, while the mule stables are seen on the left. For much of the canal’s history, the company’s buildings and structures were whitewashed in the spring.

Erroneously labeled as "Bound Brook," this image depicts the Standard Paint Company plant in South Bound Brook Borough, Somerset County. Note the A-frame swing bridge in the lower right corner of the image, and the truss bridge over the Raritan River.

This image shows a portion of the Delaware and Raritan Feeder Canal near present-day Church Road in the historic Titusville neighborhood of Hopewell Township, Mercer County. Note the Washington's Crossing railroad station of the Belvidere and Delaware Railroad, which ran along the present-day Delaware and Raritan Canal State Park multiuse trail, while the canal towpath was located along the eastern embankment.

The A-frame swing bridge over the Delaware and Raritan Canal at Griggstown, Somerset County.

This photograph shows the Delaware and Raritan Feeder Canal in the Borough of Stockton, Hunterdon County, and the Centre Bridge-Stockton covered bridge over the Delaware River. The covered bridge was destroyed by a fire caused by a lightning strike in 1923. The current steel truss bridge over the Delaware was constructed in 1927 and rests upon the stone piers that once supported the wooden covered span. Note the relative absence of vegetation along the canal towpath. Although the Delaware and Raritan Canal State embankment is heavily-vegetated today, during the canal's period of operation this was not the case. The Canal Company ensured that the area near the towpath was kept free of trees and plants, which could interfere with boat masts, sails and towlines.

This image depicts the Albany Street Bridge near the northern terminus of the canal in New Brunswick.

Much like today, in the early 20th century, Harrison Street provided an important connection between Princeton and the Brunswick Pike (U.S. Route 1). When the Millstone River was impounded to create Lake Carnegie for the Princeton University crew team, a new Harrison Street Bridge was constructed in 1906. The A-frame swing bridge, bridge tender’s house and station can be seen just beyond the arched span.

This image of Bridge #19 at East Millstone in Somerset County illustrates the size and scale of the A-Frame swing bridges that spanned the canal. A total of 60 such bridges were constructed across the canal. The bridge at East Millstone, like many of the other A-Frame bridges over the canal, was replaced by a King-Post swing bridge in 1913.

The impact of the Delaware and Raritan Canal on the City of Trenton is often difficult to recognize today, since a sizeable portion of the main canal was filled and replaced by a network of highways and the River Line light rail system in the 20th century. However, the canal had a substantial impact on the industrial growth of the City of Trenton. The city’s location at the head of navigation on the Delaware River had already proved an advantage to its economy; but, the canal provided Trenton with an additional benefit by creating a direct inland water link to the Raritan Bay and the cities of the eastern seaboard beyond. This aerial photograph, taken in April of 1930, shows how prominent a feature the canal was in Trenton, and the many manufacturing facilities and potteries that flourished in the State Capital in the 19th and 20th centuries. (Photograph reproduced courtesy of the Hagley Museum and Library https://www.hagley.org/research/search-hagley-collections )

This photograph shows workers carrying out the 1936 federal Works Progress Administration project to fill of the Delaware and Raritan Canal near the State Street Lock No. 7 in the City of Trenton. The December edition of Highlight, the WPA magazine, praised the elimination of four canal locks and seven bridges related to the “unused and unsightly” canal, which was considered a “community liability” as well as a “health menace in summer months.” Federal and local officials hailed the filling of the canal and the demolition of its structures, and their replacement by a “fine, modern boulevard.” The portion of the canal depicted in the photograph is today occupied by the “Trenton Freeway” portion of U.S. Route No. 1. The tallest building seen in the image was the post office (now the Clarkson S. Fisher Building & U.S. Courthouse), while the brick building was the Trenton Lodge of the Loyal Order of Moose. Sharp observers will note that the Moose Lodge and adjacent Petry Express & Storage properties are located on site of what is now the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection building.

Mr. George Holcombe, Paymaster of the Delaware and Raritan Canal Company, stands next to the steam yacht Relief in this photograph taken north of the City of Lambertville in the year 1892. Constructed in Camden and launched in 1884, the Relief was used by the Delaware and Raritan Canal Company as a pay-boat and traveled the length of the canal monthly to disburse wages to company workers.

This photo shows a pair of mules pulling a canal boat on the Feeder Canal during the first decade of the 20th century. The Johnson Ferry House, now located on the grounds of Washington Crossing State Park, can be seen in the background. Notice the length of the towline, which was more than 100 feet in length, so that the mules walked far ahead of the boat. Usually, the mule driver walked with the team to keep them moving and respond to any problems.

This photograph provides a detailed view of the design of the King-Post style swing bridge that supplanted the A-Frame bridges along the canal. Originally, A-Frame swing bridges were constructed over the canal crossings. However, as automobiles and trucks supplanted horse-drawn wagons, the A-Frame bridges were replaced by the stronger King-Post design. To operate the span, the bridgetender pushed a 10-foot pole and “walked” the bridge, which was balanced on three sets of iron wheels. The wheels rolled on a circular rail, allowing the bridge to swing to one side of the canal on a turntable. (Photograph reproduced from the Collection of the Library of Congress)

When the bridges, locks or other structures of the canal needed repairs, a work scow or shanty boat was dispatched to the site. If the work was not urgent, the repairs were completed during the winter months when the canal was closed and partly drained.

In addition to being closed at night and on Sundays, the Delaware and Raritan Canal was closed and partly drained during the winter months. While the seasonal closure handicapped the canal in its competition with the State’s railroads, it did provide a source of recreational activity for the surrounding communities.

Two hinge (or section) boats wait to be loaded at the Goat Hill stone quarry south of Lambertville around the year 1900. Several quarries along the Delaware River produced brownstone for buildings in Trenton, Philadelphia and New York City. Streets in those cities were also paved with cobblestones taken from the bed of the Delaware River and transported through the Delaware and Raritan Canal through the Lambertville outlet lock.

William J. McKelvey noted in his 1975 book that silting from rain and floods was a constant concern on the Delaware and Raritan Canal, and that periodic dredging was required during the years the canal was in operation. This photograph shows a dredge boat on the Feeder Canal north of the Church Road swing bridge in the Titusville community of Hopewell Township.

This photograph shows Washington Road in Princeton during an era of significantly reduced automobile traffic. The building on the left is the bridgetender’s house, while the small structure on the right is the tender’s shelter. The shelter provided the tender with a warm and dry place to await oncoming vessels. At each bridge and lock along the Delaware and Raritan canal, the canal company built a home for the tender. Although many of these buildings were demolished in the decades following the canal’s closure, a few of these historically-significant structures remain in places such as Lambertville, Trenton, Kingston, Lawrence, Griggstown, Blackwells Mills, Zarephath, and East Millstone.

United States Submarine Chaser No. 252 is shown possibly at South Bound Brook in the Delaware and Raritan Canal during the First World War. The SC252 was a SC-1 Class submarine chaser, a large class of anti-submarine vessels designed at the direction of then-Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt, who ordered the Navy to design a small, wood-constructed, anti-submarine vessel that could be built quickly in civilian boatyards to combat attacks by German U-boats. Commissioned on March 7, 1918, the SC252 was 110 feet in length and displaced 85 tons. She was armed with a 76 mm gun, two .30 caliber Colt machine guns and depth charges. During World War I, the government used the Delaware and Raritan Canal as a safe corridor to transport boilers and naval supplies to the Brooklyn Navy Yard from Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., while the canal itself was guarded by troops at strategic points.

United States Submarine Chaser No. 252 is shown possibly at South Bound Brook in the Delaware and Raritan Canal during the First World War. The SC252 was a SC-1 Class submarine chaser, a large class of anti-submarine vessels designed at the direction of then-Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt, who ordered the Navy to design a small, wood-constructed, anti-submarine vessel that could be built quickly in civilian boatyards to combat attacks by German U-boats. Commissioned on March 7, 1918, the SC252 was 110 feet in length and displaced 85 tons. She was armed with a 76 mm gun, two .30 caliber Colt machine guns and depth charges. During World War I, the government used the Delaware and Raritan Canal as a safe corridor to transport boilers and naval supplies to the Brooklyn Navy Yard from Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., while the canal itself was guarded by troops at strategic points.

This colorful 1895 advertisement for the Reading Railroad’s New York to Philadelphia “Bound Brook Route” depicts a boat and mules on Delaware and Raritan Feeder Canal beneath the Yardleyville Centennial Bridge which spanned the Delaware River between Ewing Township and Lower Makefield, Pennsylvania. The Whipple Truss Bridge was considered an engineering marvel when it was built in 1875; but unfortunately it was destroyed by a flood in 1904. The bridge abutments can still be seen in the Delaware River today.

This photograph shows a canal boat unloading jute at the Lambertville Paper Mill. The mill produced a variety of products, including paper insulation used for electrical wiring. (Photograph courtesy of William McKelvey, Jr.)

This colorized 1908 postcard shows a sailboat departing Lock No. 13, known as the “Deep Lock” in the City of New Brunswick. Although not the deepest lock on the Delaware and Raritan Canal (Lock No. 4 south of Lalor Street in Trenton was deeper after it was combined with Lock No. 5 in 1853) Lock No. 13 did raise and lower vessels 12.2 feet. The locktender’s house can be seen behind the boat, while the Johnson & Johnson factory buildings are visible to the right. Lock No. 13 was filled in order to facilitate the construction of N.J. Highway Route No. 18 through New Brunswick.

Bridge No. 8 at Southard Street in Trenton is seen in this 1880 photograph. This bridge was a pivot type swing bridge, which was later replaced by a vertical lift bridge in 1922 that can be seen in Image 37

The Delaware and Raritan Canal is seen flowing in the foreground of the 2nd Regiment Armory building, located near present-day East State and Stockton Streets in Trenton. The building, which was one of five State armories designed by the New Jersey architect Charles Alling Gifford (1860-1937), housed the city’s tax, welfare and housing records. The armory was destroyed by fire on July 16, 1975, and the site is presently occupied in part by the Trenton City Hall Annex.

This 1900 photograph shows the Kingston Flour Mill, which produced the Golden Wing and Seal brands of flour. The present mill structure was built in 1888 and was in operation through the 1940s under the ownership of Matthew Suydam, Jr. Today the mill is a private residence and a picturesque reminder of the historic and economic development of the community. In 1986, the Kingston Mill Historic District was added to the State and Federal Registers of Historic Places.

The civilian yacht Tarantula is seen tied up in front of the Rightmire family residence in Griggstown, Somerset County, in May of 1907. The Tarantula was owned by William K. Vanderbilt II, and was among the first turbine-powered private yachts. Constructed in Scotland, her hull was modeled on torpedo boats built for the Royal Navy. Mr. Vanderbilt used the yacht to for commuting in and around New York City. As the use of the Delaware and Raritan Canal for freight transportation declined, the canal’s use by pleasure craft increased. The canal provided an inland route which linked two major centers of pleasure boating, the Long Island Sound and Chesapeake Bay. Using the canal shortened the journey between those water bodies by nearly 200 miles when compared with the ocean route around the Cape May peninsula. (Photograph by George F. Rightmire)

This bird’s eye view of Lambertville taken after 1904 illustrates the importance of the Feeder Canal to the city, as well as its relationship to the Delaware River. Water power was supplied from the canal to the many mills and factories clustered along the waterway. The basin below the Lambertville Lock provided the necessary clearance for canalboats to rotate 90 degrees in order to enter and exit the outlet lock to the Delaware River.

The John A. Roebling wire rope works moved to Trenton in 1848, and by 1903 the plant employed 5,000 workers and covered 35 acres of the capital city. The Roebling works was situated on a site which took advantage of both the Delaware and Raritan Canal and the Camden and Amboy Railroad. This image shows a passenger train of the Camden and Amboy passing two canal steamboats near the Roebling works. The impact of Roebling’s development of wire rope and its application to civil engineering can scarcely be overstated. Roebling’s wire rope was used for the aqueducts of the Delaware and Hudson Canal, the inclined planes of the Morris Canal, as well many suspension bridges throughout the United States. So significant was Roebling’s Trenton complex, it is thought to have inspired the motto on the Lower Trenton Bridge: “Trenton Makes, the World Takes.”

The John A. Roebling wire rope works moved to Trenton in 1848, and by 1903 the plant employed 5,000 workers and covered 35 acres of the capital city. The Roebling works was situated on a site which took advantage of both the Delaware and Raritan Canal and the Camden and Amboy Railroad. This image shows a passenger train of the Camden and Amboy passing two canal steamboats near the Roebling works. The impact of Roebling’s development of wire rope and its application to civil engineering can scarcely be overstated. Roebling’s wire rope was used for the aqueducts of the Delaware and Hudson Canal, the inclined planes of the Morris Canal, as well many suspension bridges throughout the United States. So significant was Roebling’s Trenton complex, it is thought to have inspired the motto on the Lower Trenton Bridge: “Trenton Makes, the World Takes.”

The Ex-Spanish Navy gunboat Alvarado draws a curious crowd in New Brunswick as it makes its way through the Delaware and Raritan Canal in 1899 on its way to the U.S. Navy base at Portsmouth, N.H. The Alvarado was captured during the fall of Santiago de Cuba during the Spanish-American War. She was ultimately used as a training ship at the United States Naval Academy before being struck from the Naval Register in 1912.

As originally built there were only two basins on the Delaware and Raritan Canal. However, as industrial facilities were built and expanded, additional basins were constructed to permit boats to turn around, and to handle cargo in a way that minimized traffic interruptions on the canal. At the peak of industrial traffic on the canal, as many as 15 basins were in use, 10 of which were located in Trenton. As the use of the Delaware and Raritan Canal for freight transportation declined, nearly all of the basins were filled.

This photograph illustrates the East Millstone Basin denoted in the prior map image. Many basins such as this one were once located along the Delaware and Raritan Canal. When the canal was constructed, the community of what is now Millstone Borough found itself on the “wrong” (i.e. east) side of the Millstone River. In order to ship agricultural products on the canal, a new commercial center called Johnsville developed up on the west side of the river. Johnsville was incorporated as East Millstone Borough in 1873, and became part of Franklin Township in 1949. The photograph shows Bridge No. 21, along with the bridgetender’s house which survives (albeit precariously close to Amwell Road) to this day. The site of the basin is now occupied by the East Millstone First Aid Squad building and a playing field. (Photograph Courtesy of the Franklin Township Library)

This photograph shows both the Landing Lane swing bridge (Bridge No. 26) over the Delaware and Raritan Canal in New Brunswick, as well as the bridgetender’s house and shelter. Beyond the A-Frame bridge the steel truss bridge which carried traffic over the Raritan River to Piscataway can be seen. The wooden A-Frame bridge was eventually replaced by the Pennsylvania Railroad during their management of the canal with the cantilevered pony plate girder (inoperative) swing bridge that remains in place to this day.

Located at the upper tidal and navigation limit of the Raritan River, New Brunswick’s factory district fronted upon the Delaware and Raritan Canal downstream of the Deep Lock (Lock No. 13). In addition to Johnson & Johnson, New Brunswick was also the location of the Janeway & Co. wallpaper factory (reputedly the largest wallpaper factory in the nation), as well as factories which produced rubber goods, hosiery, shoes, carriages and machinery. Although some historians and writers have commented that the construction of the Delaware and Raritan Canal retarded economic growth by diminishing the importance of the city as a trans-shipment point, the canal did provide the New Brunswick’s industries with a source of water power and a steady supply of anthracite coal from Pennsylvania to fuel their businesses.

Located at the upper tidal and navigation limit of the Raritan River, New Brunswick’s factory district fronted upon the Delaware and Raritan Canal downstream of the Deep Lock (Lock No. 13). In addition to Johnson & Johnson, New Brunswick was also the location of the Janeway & Co. wallpaper factory (reputedly the largest wallpaper factory in the nation), as well as factories which produced rubber goods, hosiery, shoes, carriages and machinery. Although some historians and writers have commented that the construction of the Delaware and Raritan Canal retarded economic growth by diminishing the importance of the city as a trans-shipment point, the canal did provide the New Brunswick’s industries with a source of water power and a steady supply of anthracite coal from Pennsylvania to fuel their businesses.

Located at the upper tidal and navigation limit of the Raritan River, New Brunswick’s factory district fronted upon the Delaware and Raritan Canal downstream of the Deep Lock (Lock No. 13). In addition to Johnson & Johnson, New Brunswick was also the location of the Janeway & Co. wallpaper factory (reputedly the largest wallpaper factory in the nation), as well as factories which produced rubber goods, hosiery, shoes, carriages and machinery. Although some historians and writers have commented that the construction of the Delaware and Raritan Canal retarded economic growth by diminishing the importance of the city as a trans-shipment point, the canal did provide the New Brunswick’s industries with a source of water power and a steady supply of anthracite coal from Pennsylvania to fuel their businesses.

The construction of the Lambertville Outlet Lock in 1848 linked the Delaware and Raritan Feeder Canal to the Delaware Division Canal in New Hope, Pennsylvania by means of a cable ferry across the Delaware River. Canal boats carrying coal from the Lehigh Valley could cross the river into New Jersey and proceed downstream for transshipment at the “Coalport” in Trenton without having to proceed to Bristol, Pennsylvania and then upriver to gain access to the Delaware and Raritan Canal at Lock No. 1 in Bordentown. The Delaware Canal insisted, however, on charging full tolls to Bristol on those boats which made the transfer at New Hope. The cable ferry/outlet lock was an important innovation that allowed the Feeder Canal to be an avenue of commerce in its own right.

The image show another view of the Lambertville Outlet Lock, which was constructed in 1848 and allowed boats more direct access to the “Coalport” in Trenton. The outlet lock and cable ferry permitted boats operating on the Delaware Division of the Pennsylvania Canal to avoid traveling south to Bristol, and then north through Bordentown and up the seven locks to where the Feeder joined the main canal at Trenton. The cable ferry was abandoned in 1913.

Not far from the traffic of U.S. Route 1 in Lawrence Township lies the site of another historic community with ties to the Delaware and Raritan Canal. Baker’s Basin was settled before the canal was constructed, with the building of a hotel by Benjamin Baker in 1806. Over the ensuing years, a store, grange hall, coal yard, mule shed, school house and 10 dwellings were constructed around a canal basin, which was used to load and discharge cargo. Ice from the nearby Howell’s Mill was stored in large ice houses and used to refrigerate canal boat cargos, as well as for delivery to area homes.

It has been written that the uniqueness of the Delaware and Raritan Canal lay in the wide variety of vessels that used it. No single type of vessel is associated with the canal, although after the 1850s, small steam-powered tugs and freighters predominated. The canal’s width, depth and unlimited clearance encouraged a variety of high mast vessels with a carrying capacity of several hundred tons. The canal also pioneered the introduction of steam powered vessels. In 1839, the Robert F. Stockton (renamed the New Jersey), was built in England for the Delaware and Raritan Canal Company. It was the first iron hull vessel to cross the Atlantic, and the first commercially successful propeller-driven vessel in America.

This images depicts a pleasure boat near Zarephath. Yachtsmen used the "inside route" afforded by the canal because it avoided the rougher ocean waters. The Delaware and Raritan Canal also saved 168 miles to Philadelphia when compared with the "outside" or ocean route from New York.

During the Delaware and Raritan Canal’s years of operation, the harbor at New Brunswick was a busy hub of factories, chandleries and shipyards. The pharmaceutical, medical device and consumer products company Johnson & Johnson had its factory adjacent to the canal. Johnson & Johnson also owned its own fleet of boats through a subsidiary company which operated as the “Middlesex Transportation Company.” Having its own steamboats allowed the company to ensure that it could quickly and reliably transport their products to the docks in New York City. This circa 1902 photograph shows the Trenton loading freight at the factory, which advertised its medical products on the building’s exterior walls. The Trenton was constructed in 1859 in Wilmington, Delaware, and operated on the Delaware River and the Delaware and Raritan Canal for 56 years.

Sources:

Barth, Linda J. (2004). The Delaware and Raritan Canal at Work. Charleston, SC. Arcadia Publishing.

Gibson, David, Bauer, Steven & Amon, James. (1982). Delaware and Raritan Canal State Park: Historic Structures Survey.

McKelvey, William J. (1975). The Delaware & Raritan Canal: A Pictorial History. (1st ed.). York, PA. Canal Press Incorporated.

McKelvey, William J. (2011). Along the Delaware & Raritan Canal: A History & Resources Database. (www.canalwatch.org/files/Along_D_R_C_Database_FINAL.pdf)

Tyler, Donald H. (1965). Old Lawrenceville (Formerly Maidenhead, New Jersey: Early Houses and People. author.

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