The Pennsylvania Canal (or sometimes Pennsylvania Canal system) was a complex system of transportation infrastructure improvements including

canal Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flow un ...

s, dams,

locks Lock(s) may refer to: Common meanings *Lock and key, a mechanical device used to secure items of importance *Lock (water navigation), a device for boats to transit between different levels of water, as in a canal Arts and entertainment * ''Lock ...

, tow paths,

aqueducts Aqueduct may refer to: Structures *Aqueduct (bridge), a bridge to convey water over an obstacle, such as a ravine or valley *Navigable aqueduct, or water bridge, a structure to carry navigable waterway canals over other rivers, valleys, railw ...

, and

viaduct A viaduct is a specific type of bridge that consists of a series of arches, piers or columns supporting a long elevated railway or road. Typically a viaduct connects two points of roughly equal elevation, allowing direct overpass across a wide v ...

s. The Canal and Works were constructed and assembled over several decades beginning in 1824, the year of the first

enabling act An enabling act is a piece of legislation by which a legislative body grants an entity which depends on it (for authorization or legitimacy) the power to take certain actions. For example, enabling acts often establish government agencies to car ...

and budget items.The political push to create the system was inspired by competition with New York and Baltimore, all three vying to be the premier major port city, and in particular, the continuing construction of the

Erie Canal The Erie Canal is a historic canal in upstate New York that runs east-west between the Hudson River and Lake Erie. Completed in 1825, the canal was the first navigable waterway connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes, vastly reducing t ...

, begun in 1817. The news that construction of the Erie was expected on schedule, in 1825 added fuel to what had become a frenzy. The Erie began operations on October 26, 1825, further inspiring Pennsylvanians to over achieve in the Great Works projects. Portaging over the Alleghenies by 1834 was one result, though the

Delaware Canal The Delaware Division of the Pennsylvania Canal, more commonly called the Delaware Canal, runs for parallel to the right bank of the Delaware River from the entry locks near the mouth of the Lehigh River and terminal end of the Lehigh Canal at E ...

project was delayed to fund the western infrastructure connecting Allegheny County to the Center and Eastern state. It should be understood the first use of any railway in North America was the year 1826,The first railway in North America was built in the year 1826, when in

Quincy, Massachusetts Quincy ( ) is a coastal U.S. city in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. It is the largest city in the county and a part of Greater Boston, Metropolitan Boston as one of Boston's immediate southern suburbs. Its population in 2020 was 1 ...

, the animal-powered

Granite Railway The Granite Railway was one of the first railroads in the United States, built to carry granite from Quincy, Massachusetts, to a dock on the Neponset River in Milton. From there boats carried the heavy stone to Charlestown for construction of ...

was used to move granite quarried for the

Bunker Hill Monument The Bunker Hill Monument is a monument erected at the site of the Battle of Bunker Hill in Boston, Massachusetts, which was among the first major battles between the Red Coats and Patriots in the American Revolutionary War. The 221-foot (67 m) gran ...

to seaside docks. This road became a commercial shortline. so the newspapers and the Pennsylvania Assembly of 1824 applied the term then to the proposed

rights of way Right of way is the legal right, established by grant from a landowner or long usage (i.e. by Easement#Easement by prescription, prescription), to pass along a specific route through property belonging to another. A similar ''right of access'' ...

mainly for the canals of the

Main Line of Public Works The Main Line of Public Works was a package of legislation passed by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1826 to establish a means of transporting freight between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. It funded the construction of various long-proposed can ...

to be built across the southern part of Pennsylvania. Enacted while railroads were in their infancy, the focus of the act was to create, via a

system, the capability to ship heavy or

bulk goods Bulk cargo is commodity cargo that is transported unpackaged in large quantities. Description Bulk cargo refers to material in either liquid or granular, particulate form, as a mass of relatively small solids, such as petroleum/crude oil, ...

and connect

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

and, more importantly, beyond to the new growth markets in the developing

Northwest Territory The Northwest Territory, also known as the Old Northwest and formally known as the Territory Northwest of the River Ohio, was formed from unorganized western territory of the United States after the American Revolutionary War. Established in 1 ...

reached by the

Ohio River The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illino ...

, now called the Midwest.City fathers in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

and

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

were undertaking similar actions to build their states' future commerce, resulting in the proposal and company formed to build a canal from Baltimore to the Monongahela and another across Ohio—that determination would spawn the

B&O Railroad The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the first common carrier railroad and the oldest railroad in the United States, with its first section opening in 1830. Merchants from Baltimore, which had benefited to some extent from the construction of ...

.
In New York the financial and political scheming to get a lock on the emerging Midwest markets would begin with the

and work up through the

Delaware and Hudson Canal The Delaware and Hudson Canal was the first venture of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, which would later build the Delaware and Hudson Railway. Between 1828 and 1899, the canal's barges carried anthracite coal from the mines of northeaster ...

and, not long after, the

New York Central Railroad The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Midw ...

. Later, when updated in 1837 to reflect the experience of twelve years of toddler-railways,Several key early railroads were added later in 1837 after word of early British successes reached the United states, and the first group of rail lines begun in the US (1826–1828) proved their worth. the term was also applied to railroads and new canals to be added to the state transportation system. As a crowning achievement, the Main Line of Public Works and the Pennsylvania Canal system topped in elevation by erecting the

Allegheny Portage Railroad The Allegheny Portage Railroad was the first railroad constructed through the Allegheny Mountains in central Pennsylvania, United States; it operated from 1834 to 1854 as the first transportation infrastructure through the gaps of the Allegheny ...

, which used a system of five inclines and five planes on each side of the Eastern Continental Divide at

Cresson Pass ''Cresson'' is the French word for ''watercress''. It may refer to: ; Places * Battle of Cresson, a small battle fought on May 1, 1187, in what now is Israel, near Nazareth * Cresson, Pennsylvania, a United States borough * Cressona, Pennsylvania, ...

Cambria County Cambria County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 133,472. Its county seat is Ebensburg. The county was created on March 26, 1804, from parts of Bedford, Huntingdon, and Somerset Countie ...

to actually haul wheeled flat cars, which had halved canal boats placed on them, up and over the

Allegheny Front The Allegheny Front is the major southeast- or east-facing escarpment in the Allegheny Mountains in southern Pennsylvania, western Maryland, eastern West Virginia, and western Virginia, USA. The Allegheny Front forms the boundary between the Rid ...

and connect Pittsburgh to the Susquehanna. When finished in 1834 the trip from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh could be made in 3–5 days, weather conditions depending.

Background

The near west, in the fifty years before 1830 was but recently settled and steadily growing as people poured westwards along the various

Emigrant Trail In the history of the American frontier, overland trails were built by pioneers throughout the 19th century and especially between 1829 and 1870 as an alternative to sea and railroad transport. These immigrants began to settle much of North Ame ...

s into the

mid-west The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of the United States. I ...

to destinations on a million new farms and towns throughout the watershed of the

Mississippi Valley The Mississippi River is the List of longest rivers of the United States (by main stem), second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest Drainage system (geomorphology), drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson B ...

towards the lands organized in the

. The goal of the

s was to enhance commerce and lower transportation costs between east and west, better joining the trans-Allegheny region to the eastern seaboard; this was a commercially motivated act with an eye towards servicing the growing markets of the new fast growing western settlements (Midwest) to the manufactories of the East. Provision was made in the later legislation to tie in and even extend privately built canals such as the

Lehigh Canal The Lehigh Canal, or the Lehigh Navigation Canal, is a navigable canal that begins at the mouth of Nesquehoning Creek on the Lehigh River in eastern Pennsylvania. It was built in two sections over a span of twenty years, beginning in 1818. The low ...

, not technically part of the Pennsylvania Canal system, and link them and the state's infant railroads to the public system and add to its value. The canal linking Philadelphia to the Susquehanna River, the proposed Pennsylvania Canal (Philadelphia to the Susquehanna to the

Wright's Ferry Wright's Ferry was a Pennsylvania Colony settlement established by John Wright in 1726, that grew up around the site of an important Inn and Pub anchoring the eastern end of a popular animal powered ferry (1730–1901) and now a historic part of ...

landing at

Columbia, Pennsylvania Columbia, formerly Wright's Ferry, is a borough (town) in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 10,222. It is southeast of Harrisburg, on the east (left) bank of the Susquehanna River, acr ...

), was overtaken by technological events. Instead of pouring money into building a ditch, permission was sought by the investors to use its right of way to replace it in the "main line of works" scheme by a railway, a new developing technology which resulted in the Philadelphia & Columbia Railroad (1834). As they were built above ground, railways were easier and cheaper to build, since no ditches needed to be dug with human

muscle power A working animal is an animal, usually domesticated, that is kept by humans and trained to perform tasks instead of being slaughtered to harvest animal products. Some are used for their physical strength (e.g. oxen and draft horses) or for t ...

, nor did they require feed waters to be located and aqueducts built to provide them. The plan also included a visionary scheme to build a ramp system which would roll canal boats over the

Allegheny Mountains The Allegheny Mountain Range (; also spelled Alleghany or Allegany), informally the Alleghenies, is part of the vast Appalachian Mountain Range of the Eastern United States and Canada and posed a significant barrier to land travel in less devel ...

at an elevation over through the broad uneven saddle of

. Though most of the canals no longer have any function, some segments retain value as historic and recreational sites. Both the

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...

and the lower

were kept busy into the tough financial years of the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

. The right of way authorized for the Upper Lehigh Canal became an extension of the

Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad The Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad is a defunct railroad that operated in eastern Pennsylvania during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The company was a subsidiary of the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company (LC&N), but for much of its lifetim ...

(LH&S), which the 1837 revised act had established to connect the Wyoming Valley to the Delaware River navigations; the railway would eventually parallel the entire Lehigh Canal operated by its parent LHC&N. The route from Philadelphia to Wilkes-Barre over the Lehigh and LH&S or eventual LH&S cut over off the trip, including a similar distance saving Philadelphia to Pittsburgh (via Pitston Landing's canal docks). The first three tunnels of any kind in the US were built in support of the Allegheny Portage Railway, They were also converted into railway tunnels in 1854 when the

Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark PRR), legal name The Pennsylvania Railroad Company also known as the "Pennsy", was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was named ...

bought the Allegheny Portage Railway from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. and all of them were converted to railroad tunnels.

History

The

canal era Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flow und ...

began in Pennsylvania in 1797 with the

Conewago Canal The Conewago Canal, on the west bank of the Susquehanna River below York Haven, Pennsylvania, south of Harrisburg in York County, enabled late 18th and early 19th century rivercraft to safely bypass rapids at Conewago Falls. Work on the canal o ...

, which carried riverboats around Conewago Falls on the

Susquehanna River The Susquehanna River (; Lenape: Siskëwahane) is a major river located in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, overlapping between the lower Northeast and the Upland South. At long, it is the longest river on the East Coast of the ...

near York Haven. Spurred by construction of the

(construction between 1817 and 1825) and the perceived competitive advantage it would give New York State in moving people and materials to and from the interior of the continent, Pennsylvanians built hundreds of miles of canals during the early decades of the 19th century. These included the privately funded

, technically a

navigation Navigation is a field of study that focuses on the process of monitoring and controlling the movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another.Bowditch, 2003:799. The field of navigation includes four general categories: land navigation, ...

(1818) improving

water transport Maritime transport (or ocean transport) and hydraulic effluvial transport, or more generally waterborne transport, is the transport of people (passengers) or goods (cargo) via waterways. Freight transport by sea has been widely used throu ...

on the lower

Lehigh River The Lehigh River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 1, 2011 tributary of the Delaware River in eastern Pennsylvania. The river flows in a generally southward pat ...

(

Mauch Chunk Jim Thorpe is a borough and the county seat of Carbon County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. It is part of Northeastern Pennsylvania. It is historically known as the burial site of Native American sports legend Jim Thorpe. Jim Thorpe is ...

to Easton at the confluence with the

via

Allentown Allentown may refer to several places in the United States and topics related to them: * Allentown, California, now called Toadtown, California * Allentown, Georgia, a town in Wilkinson County * Allentown, Illinois, an unincorporated community in T ...

and

Bethlehem Bethlehem (; ar, بيت لحم ; he, בֵּית לֶחֶם '' '') is a city in the central West Bank, Palestine, about south of Jerusalem. Its population is approximately 25,000,Amara, 1999p. 18.Brynen, 2000p. 202. and it is the capital o ...

) and enabling the first regular reliable supplies of

anthracite coal Anthracite, also known as hard coal, and black coal, is a hard, compact variety of coal that has a submetallic luster. It has the highest carbon content, the fewest impurities, and the highest energy density of all types of coal and is the high ...

to reach eastern manufactories and two canals built later by Pennsylvania stock companies, the Schuylkill Canal from Philadelphia to Port Carbon and the

Union Canal Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

from

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of Letter (alphabet), letters, symbols, etc., especially by Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process invo ...

to Middletown. By 1834, the Main Line of Public Works, a system of interlocking canals, railways, and

inclined plane An inclined plane, also known as a ramp, is a flat supporting surface tilted at an angle from the vertical direction, with one end higher than the other, used as an aid for raising or lowering a load. The inclined plane is one of the six clas ...

s, was hauling passengers and freight up to between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Though not all in concurrent operation, the total length of the canals built in Pennsylvania eventually reached . By 1840, work had been completed not only on the Main Line of Public Works but on many other lines, officially called ''divisions''. The Main Line consisted of the Eastern Division, the Juniata Division, the Western Division, the

Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad (P&CR) (1834) was one of the earliest commercial railroads in the United States, running from Philadelphia to Columbia, Pennsylvania, it was built by the Pennsylvania Canal Commission in lieu of a canal from Col ...

, and the

. North–south divisions operated along the

Delaware River The Delaware River is a major river in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. From the meeting of its branches in Hancock (village), New York, Hancock, New York, the river flows for along the borders of N ...

in the east, the Susquehanna River in the middle of the state, and the Beaver River in the west. A few additions were completed after 1840. By about 1850 steam engine technology had advanced to having the ability to produce locomotives with sufficient power to move freight, including bulk goods such as coal and grain, so railroads had already begun displacing canals as the preferred method of long-distance transportation, as they also offered speed. In 1852, the

(PRR) began offering rail service from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, and in 1857, it bought the Main Line Canal from the state. In 1859, all canals owned by the commonwealth were sold. The PRR formed the Pennsylvania Canal Company in 1867 and continued to use canals to haul freight. The canal business, however, declined steadily in the last quarter of the century, and most Pennsylvania canals no longer functioned after 1900.

State built

The state funded the following canals in Pennsylvania. For interstate canals, the listed mileage is for the Pennsylvania portion only.

Pennsylvania Main Line Canal

* Eastern Division-Pennsylvania Canal, Columbia to Clarks Ferry, * Juniata Division-Pennsylvania Canal, Juniata Aqueduct to Hollidaysburg, * Western Division-Pennsylvania Canal, Johnstown to Pittsburgh, * Allegheny Outlet-Pennsylvania Canal, Western Division to Allegheny River, * Kittanning Feeder, Kittanning to Western Division,

Susquehanna network

: These canals are all connected directly to branches of the

, and most are technically

Navigations Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flow u ...

. *

Pennsylvania Canal (Susquehanna Division) 340px, alt=Map_of_Pennsylvania, Compare this map with its major roads of today and its terrains with the above canal system map. The Susquehanna Canal of the Pennsylvania Canal System was funded and authorized as part of the 1826 Main Line of Pub ...

, Clarks Ferry to Northumberland, *

Pennsylvania Canal (West Branch Division) The West Branch Division of the Pennsylvania Canal ran from the canal basin at Northumberland, Pennsylvania, at the confluence of the West Branch Susquehanna River with the main stem of the Susquehanna River, north through Muncy, then west throu ...

, Northumberland to Farrandsville, * North Branch Division-->, Northumberland to New York State line, *

Wiconisco Canal The Wiconisco Canal was a 19th century transportation waterway, about long, in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, Dauphin County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. Running along the east bank of the Susquehanna River between Millersburg, Pennsylv ...

, Clarks Ferry to Millersburg, * Lewisburg Cut, West Branch Division to Lewisburg, * Bald Eagle Cut, West Branch Division through Lock Haven to Bald Eagle Creek,

Beaver and Erie

* Beaver Division, Ohio River at Beaver to Pulaski, * Shenango Division, Pulaski to Conneaut Lake, * Conneaut Division, Conneaut to Erie, * French Creek Feeder, Meadville to Conneaut Lake, *

Franklin Line The Franklin Line, also called the Franklin/Foxboro Line, is part of the MBTA Commuter Rail system. It runs from Boston's South Station in a southwesterly direction toward Franklin, Massachusetts, utilizing the Northeast Corridor before splitti ...

, French Creek Feeder to Franklin,

Delaware

* Delaware Division, Easton to Bristol,

Privately built

Private entities, including foreign investors, funded the following canals in Pennsylvania. For interstate canals, the listed mileage is for the Pennsylvania portion only. *

Bald Eagle and Spring Creek Navigation The Bald Eagle and Spring Creek Navigation Company was a canal company in central Pennsylvania intended to link the iron industry of Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, with the Pennsylvania canal system. Opened for half its length in 1837, the remainder o ...

Canal, Bellefonte to Bald Eagle Cut, * Codorus Navigation, York to Susquehanna River, * Conestoga Navigation, Lancaster to Susquehanna River, *

, around Conewago Falls on Susquehanna, *

, Honesdale to Roundout, New York, *

, White Haven to Easton, Grand Canal (1848-1862) The Lehigh was built in two stages, the lower canal running built in 1818-1820 connected the coal fields from the slack water pool at

to Easton on the Delaware. There it provided coal to the

Delaware & Raritan Canal The Delaware and Raritan Canal (D&R Canal) is a canal in central New Jersey, built in the 1830s, that served to connect the Delaware River to the Raritan River. It was an efficient and reliable means of transportation of freight between Philade ...

(to New York City, Princeton, & Trenton), the

to Philadelphia, and by conveyance on the Delaware River to oceanic shipping vessels. The 1837 revision of the Main Line of Public Works authorized the

Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company The Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company (LCAN) (1988–2010) was a modern-day anthracite coal mining company headquartered in Pottsville, Pennsylvania. It acquired many properties and relaunched the Lehigh Coal Companies brand in 1988. The LCAN r ...

to build the upper canal division from White Haven down through the Lehigh Gorge to the docks and railroads at Mauch Chunk—and build railroads from the Pennsylvania Canal docks on the Susquehanna at Pittston Landing-to-

Penobscot Knob Penobscot Knob, also Penobscot Mountain, is a summit located in the western fringe of the Poconos nearest to Mountain Top, Pennsylvania which in the Solomon Gap pass below it lies an important multi-modal transportation corridor. At one time befo ...

-via-the-

Ashley Planes Ashley Planes was a historic freight cable railroad situated along three separately powered inclined plane sections located between Ashley, Pennsylvania at the foot, and via the Solomon cutting the yard in Mountain Top over above and initially bu ...

cable railway Cable may refer to: Mechanical * Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof * Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a hel ...

rising from Ashley in . At the top trains descended by gravity to the new extended canal head at White Haven and returned by locomotive propulsion. *

Junction Canal The Junction Canal was a canal in the states of New York and Pennsylvania in the United States. The canal was also called the Arnot Canal, after the name of its principal stockholder, John Arnot of Elmira, New York. History The canal was built a ...

, Athens to Elmira, New York, *

Leiper Canal Early in the 19th century, the Leiper Canal built in 1828–29 during the middle of the American canal age ran about along Crum Creek in Delaware County to its mouth in eastern Pennsylvania's Delaware Valley carrying its owner‘s quarrie ...

, Crum Creek near Chester, several miles * Monongahela Navigation Company * Muncy Cut, Muncy to West Branch Susquehanna, *

Pennsylvania and Ohio Canal The Pennsylvania and Ohio Canal, also known as the P & O Canal, the Cross Cut Canal and the Mahoning Canal was a shipping canal which operated from 1840 until 1877 (though the canal was completely abandoned by 1872). It was unique in that it se ...

, New Castle to Akron, Ohio, * Pine Grove Feeder, Union Canal to Pine Grove, *

Sandy and Beaver Canal The Sandy and Beaver Canal was a canal and lock transportation system which ran seventy-three miles from the Ohio and Erie Canal at Bolivar, Ohio, to the Ohio River at Glasgow, Pennsylvania. It was chartered in 1828 and completed twenty years l ...

, Glasgow to Bolivar, Ohio, * Schuylkill Canal, Port Carbon to Philadelphia, *

Susquehanna and Tidewater Canal The Susquehanna and Tidewater Canal between Wrightsville, Pennsylvania, and Havre de Grace, Maryland, at the head of Chesapeake Bay, provided an interstate shipping alternative to 19th-century arks, rafts, and boats plying the difficult waters o ...

, Columbia to Havre de Grace, Maryland, *

, Reading to Middletown, successor to the

Schuylkill and Susquehanna Navigation Company The Schuylkill and Susquehanna Navigation Company was a limited liability corporation founded in Pennsylvania on September 29, 1791. Reprint of 1990 volume. The company was founded for the purpose of improving river navigation, which in the post ...

Parks, monuments, historic places

Several canal segments or other canal infrastructure in Pennsylvania are listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

. One complete canal, the

, is the main feature of

Delaware Canal State Park Delaware Canal State Park is a Pennsylvania state park in Bucks and Northampton Counties in Pennsylvania. The main attraction of the park is the Delaware Canal which runs parallel to the Delaware River between Easton and Bristol. The Delawar ...

(formerly Theodore Roosevelt State Park) between Bristol and Easton. It is continuously intact for its full length of . Other Pennsylvania canal infrastructure on the National Register includes the following: *

, from Johnstown to Hollidaysburg, which is both a National Historic Site and a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

. The portage railroad begins where the canal ends in Hollidaysburg. This site is now the home of th
Canal Basin Park
* D & H Canal Company office, scenic drive, northwest side of Lackawaxen Township * Juniata Division, guard lock and feeder dam, Raystown Branch,

Juniata River The Juniata River () is a tributary of the Susquehanna River, approximately long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed August 8, 2011 in central Pennsylvania. The river is ...

, east of

Huntingdon Huntingdon is a market town in the Huntingdonshire district in Cambridgeshire, England. The town was given its town charter by King John in 1205. It was the county town of the historic county of Huntingdonshire. Oliver Cromwell was born there ...

, south of U.S. Route 22, near Springfield, Pennsylvania * Juniata Division, of canal between the Pennsylvania Railroad main line and the Juniata River in Granville Township * Leesport Lock House, a Lockhouse on the Schuylkill Canal in Leesport * Lehigh Canal, Allentown to Hopeville section, Lehigh River near

* Lehigh Canal, Carbon County section along Lehigh River, Weissport and vicinity * Lehigh Canal, Glendon and Abbott Street Industrial Sites, Lehigh River from Hopeville to confluence of Lehigh and Delaware Rivers near Easton * Lehigh Canal, Lehigh Gap to South Walnutport boundary * Lehigh Canal, Walnutport to Allentown section,

and vicinity * Schuylkill Navigation Canal, Oakes Reach section, north and east bank of

Schuylkill River The Schuylkill River ( , ) is a river running northwest to southeast in eastern Pennsylvania. The river was improved by navigations into the Schuylkill Canal, and several of its tributaries drain major parts of Pennsylvania's Coal Region. It fl ...

from Pennsylvania Route 113 to Lock 61 * Union Canal Tunnel, west of

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...

off Pennsylvania Route 72 * West Branch Division, canal and Limestone Run aqueduct,

Milton Milton may refer to: Names * Milton (surname), a surname (and list of people with that surname) ** John Milton (1608–1674), English poet * Milton (given name) ** Milton Friedman (1912–2006), Nobel laureate in Economics, author of '' Free t ...

* Western Division, canal north of Torrance in Westmoreland County * Western Division, canal along the

Conemaugh River The Conemaugh River is a long tributary of the Kiskiminetas River in Westmoreland, Indiana, and Cambria counties in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The name means 'Otter Creek', originating from the Unami-Lenape language word ''kwənəmuxkw' ...

near Robinson

Notes

References

External links

Pennsylvania Canal Society

American Canal Society

{{National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania Canals on the National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania Canals in Pennsylvania Transportation buildings and structures in Pittsburgh 19th-century establishments in Pennsylvania 19th-century disestablishments in Pennsylvania National Register of Historic Places in Pittsburgh