The Delaware Canal by Marie Murphy Duess Read Free Book Online Page B

to make such modifications as I may deem best for the purpose intended…All my experience has gone to prove the impolicy of multiplying machinery when it is not absolutely necessary . 34
    Although there is no mention of it in any of his letters, White must have been infuriated by the fact that had the state allowed him to build the canal when he requested, it would have been completed earlier and correctly. He spent time and energy repairing the canal, addressing the inconsistencies in the locks and aqueducts and trying to fire the men who were not doing their jobs effectively.
    By 1832, under the direction of Josiah White, the Delaware Division Canal was repaired properly and was open for use. It was one of the first sections of the state public works to be completed and, in the long run, perhaps one of the best built. The Easton Whig reported in November 1833, “The Delaware Canal is in the full tide of successful experiment and the Lehigh Canal is stout and strong.” 35
    The work Josiah supervised corrected the leakage problem, and the Lehigh was feeding the upper canal properly, but the engineers building the waterway found it necessary to introduce other feeders of water into the canal for the lower level. One of the most industrious and unique was the use of a lifting wheel located at the Union Paper Mills, just south of New Hope, which raised water from a wing dam into the canal. It was built by Lewis S. Coryell and, except for one overhaul in 1880, this water wheel continued to feed the canal without trouble throughout the life of the canal. There were essentially two wheels. The outside wheel was built with paddles that were turned by the flow of water. This controlled the inside wheel, which caught the water in trough-like buckets and emptied into a sluiceway under the mill and into the canal on the other side. The canal was now fully watered.
    There were about twenty creeks that flowed directly into the Delaware Canal channel, but they couldn’t be counted on to contribute water to the canal. They did, however, deposit large amounts of silt into the channel during spring thaws and heavy storms, creating more work for the maintenance crews who used shovels and wheelbarrows to remove it. Maintenance on the canal was constant, with quick fixes taking place in the summer months and larger problems solved during the winter months.

    A water wheel built at the Union Mills just outside of New Hope helped to water the lower end of the Delaware Canal. The mills have been turned into upscale condominiums with beautiful views of the Delaware River. Courtesy of the Historic Langhorne Association .

    Tolls were collected at the tide lock in Bristol and again in New Hope. Industrial buildings and mills were built along the edge of the canal, as seen in the background. Courtesy of the Pennsylvania Canal Society Collection, National Canal Museum, Easton, PA .
    At its completion, the Delaware Division Canal was sixty feet long, forty feet wide and seven feet deep. The entire system cost $1,400,000 to build, with additional funds expended in maintaining the canal. There were constant repairs due to leaks, floods and freshets. It was initially believed that the Pennsylvania state canals could be built on borrowed money, and once in operation the loans would be paid off and there would be a surplus paid into the treasury. But when it was completed and a crowd of coal-loaded boats could be seen floating up and down the waterways, the prosperity residents expected wasn’t forthcoming. They were exceptionally outraged when taxes were raised to pay the debt.
    The revenue from tolls barely exceeded operating expenses. As a result, the state-owned canals were sold to private concerns. In 1866, a ninety-nine-year lease agreement was made between the Delaware Division Canal Company and the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company.

Chapter 4
    Locks and Their Keepers
    Locks, Aqueducts and Waste Weirs
    Locks were crucial to canal