Morris Canal

The Morris Canal (1829–1924) was a common carrier anthracite coal canal across northern New Jersey that connected the two industrial canals in Easton, Pennsylvania, across the Delaware River from its western terminus at Phillipsburg, New Jersey, to New York Harbor and New York City through its eastern terminals in Newark and on the Hudson River in Jersey City. The canal was sometimes (erroneously) called the Morris and Essex Canal, due to confusion with the nearby and unrelated Morris and Essex Railroad.

With a total elevation change of more than , the canal was considered an ingenious technological marvel for its use of water-driven inclined planes, the first in the United States, to cross the northern New Jersey hills.

It was built primarily to move coal to industrializing eastern cities that had stripped their environs of wood. The canal fostered the growth of Allentown and Bethlehem. Completed to Newark in 1831, the canal was extended eastward to Jersey City between 1834 and 1836. In 1839, hot blast technology was married to blast furnaces fired entirely using anthracite, allowing the continuous high-volume production of plentiful anthracite pig iron.

The Morris Canal eased the transportation of anthracite from Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley to northern New Jersey's growing iron industry and other developing industries adopting steam power in New Jersey and the New York City area. It also carried minerals and iron ore westward to blast furnaces in western New Jersey and Allentown and Bethlehem in the Lehigh Valley until the development of Great Lakes iron ore caused the trade to decline.

The Morris Canal remained in heavy use through the 1860s. But railroads had begun to eclipse canals in the United States, and in 1871, it was leased to the Lehigh Valley Railroad.

Like many enterprises that depended on anthracite, the canal's revenues dried up with the rise of oil fuels and truck transport. It was taken over by the state of New Jersey in 1922, and formally abandoned in 1924.

While the canal was largely dismantled in the following five years, portions of it and its accompanying feeders and ponds have been preserved. A statewide greenway for cyclists and pedestrians is planned, beginning in Phillipsburg, traversing Warren, Sussex, Morris, Passaic, Essex, and Hudson counties and including the old route through Jersey City. The canal was added to the National Register of Historic Places on October 1, 1974, for its significance in engineering, industry, and transportation. The boundary was increased in 2016 to include the Lake Hopatcong station in Landing.

Description

On the canal's western end, at Phillipsburg, a cable ferry allowed Morris Canal boats to cross the Delaware River westward to Easton, Pennsylvania, and travel up the Lehigh Canal to Mauch Chunk, in the anthracite coal regions, to receive their cargoes from the mines. From Phillipsburg, the Morris Canal ran eastward through the valley of the Musconetcong River, which it roughly paralleled upstream to its source at Lake Hopatcong, New Jersey's largest lake. From the lake, the canal descended through the valley of the Rockaway River to Boonton, eventually around the northern end of Paterson's Garret Mountain, and south to its 1831 terminus at Newark on the Passaic River. From there it continued eastward across Kearny Point and through Jersey City to the Hudson River. The extension through Jersey City was at sea level and was supplied with water from the lower Hackensack River.

With its two navigable feeders, the canal was long. Its ascent eastward from Phillipsburg to its feeder from Lake Hopatcong was , and the descent from there to tidewater was . Surmounting the height difference was considered a major engineering feat of its day, accomplished through 23 locks and 23 inclined planes — essentially, short railways that carried canal boats in open cars uphill and downhill using water-powered winches. Inclined planes required less time and water than locks, although they were more expensive to build and maintain.

History

thumb|Chromolithograph of the canal from 1900

thumb|Canal in 2018 at [[Waterloo Village]]

The idea of constructing the canal is credited to Morristown businessman George P. MacCulloch, who reportedly conceived it while visiting Lake Hopatcong. In 1822, MacCulloch brought together a group of interested citizens at Morristown to discuss the idea.

The Palladium of Liberty, a Morristown newspaper of the day, reported on August 29, 1822:

On November 15, 1822, the New Jersey Legislature passed an act appointing three commissioners, one of whom was MacCulloch, to explore the feasibility of the project, determine the canal's possible route, and estimate its costs. MacCulloch initially greatly underestimated the height difference between the Passaic and Lake Hopatcong, pegging it at only .

On December 31, 1824, the New Jersey Legislature chartered the Morris Canal and Banking Company, a private corporation charged with the construction of the canal. The corporation issued 20,000 shares of stock at $100 a share, providing $2 million of capital, divided evenly between funds for building the canal and funds for banking privileges. The charter provided that New Jersey could take over the canal at the end of 99 years. In the event that the state did not take over the canal, the charter would remain in effect for 50 years more, after which the canal would become the property of the state without cost.

Construction

In 1823, the canal company hired Ephraim Beach, who was originally an assistant engineer on the Erie Canal, as its chief engineer, to survey the routes for the Morris Canal.

Construction started in 1824 in Newark, with a channel wide and deep. The canal started from Upper Newark Bay, followed the Passaic River and crossed it at Little Falls, then went on to Boonton, Dover, then the southern tip of Lake Hopatcong, whereupon it went to Phillipsburg.

On October 15, 1825, ground was broken at the summit level at the "Great Pond" (i.e. lake Hopatcong). By 1828, 82 of the 97 eastern sections and 43 of the 74 western sections were finished. By 1829, some sections were completed and opened for traffic, and in 1830, the section from Newark to Rockaway was opened.

Because the locks could only handle boats of , that meant that through traffic from the Lehigh Canal was impossible, requiring reloading coal at Easton.

Design and building of the inclined planes

thumb|200px|right|Drawing of the powerhouse for the Boonton Plane (7 East)

thumb|200px|right|Powerhouse which has the machinery can be seen in the middle of the photo, as well as the flume and the routing of the cables for Inclined Plane 7 West.

thumb|200px|right|Controls inside a powerhouse for one of the planes

The vertical movement on the Morris Canal was , in comparison with less than on the Erie Canal, and would have required a lock every , which would have made the costs prohibitive.

James Renwick, a professor at Columbia University, devised the idea of using inclined planes to raise the boats in , instead of using about 300 lift locks, since a lift lock of that time typically lifted about . In the end, Renwick used only 23 inclined planes and 23 locks.

Renwick's original design seems to have been to have double tracks on all inclined planes, with the descending caisson holding more water; thus, the system theoretically would not have needed external power. Nevertheless, the inclined planes were built with overshot water wheels to supply power. Iron overshot waterwheels originally powered the planes.

The Scotch (reaction) turbines, which later replaced the overshot water wheels, were feet in diameter and made of cast iron. They could pull boats up an 11% grade. The longest plane was the double-tracked Plane 9 West, which was long and lifted boats up (i.e. 6% grade) in 12 minutes. The winding drum was in diameter and had a spiral grove of pitch. The rope was fastened on both ends to the drum, and there was a clutch that allowed the direction of the wheel to be reversed. The plane had two lines of steel rails, with a gauge of from center of rail to center. Rails were wide at top and high, and weighed . The cradle had a brake, in case the load went downhill too fast. Descent was also checked by the plane-man by putting about half power through the turbine. The water was fed into the turbines from below, thus relieving friction on the bearings and balancing them.

A comparison of Plane 2 West (Stanhope), which had a lift, with a flight of 12 locks yields the following: the plane took 5 minutes 30 seconds, and consumed of water lifting a loaded boat. Locks , meaning of water per lock) would consume for 12 locks (about 23 times more water) and would take 96 minutes.

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An English visitor, Fanny Trollope, in her 1832 book Domestic Manners of the Americans, wrote of the canal:

<blockquote>We spent a delightful day in New Jersey, in visiting, with a most agreeable party, the inclined planes, which are used instead of locks on the Morris canal.

This is a very interesting work; it is one among a thousand which prove the people of America to be the most enterprising in the world. I was informed that this important canal, which connects the waters of the Hudson and the Delaware, is a hundred miles long, and in this distance overcomes a variation of level amounting to sixteen hundred feet. Of this, fourteen hundred are achieved by inclined planes. The planes average about sixty feet of perpendicular lift each, and are to support about forty tons. The time consumed in passing them is twelve minutes for one hundred feet of perpendicular rise. The expense is less than a third of what locks would be for surmounting the same rise. If we set about any more canals, this may be worth attending to.

This Morris canal is certainly an extraordinary work; it not only varies its level sixteen hundred feet, but at one point runs along the side of a mountain at thirty feet above the tops of the highest buildings in the town of Paterson, below; at another it crosses the falls of the Passaic in a stone aqueduct sixty feet above the water in the river. This noble work, in a great degree, owes its existence to the patriotic and scientific energy of Mr. Cadwallader Colden.</blockquote>

Orange Street Inclined Plane

In 1902, after a fatal crash between a Delaware and Lackawanna railroad train and a streetcar, the railroad grade was lowered (to the level it occupies today) and the Morris Canal had to make an electrically driven incline plane to bring boats up and over the railroad and Orange street, and then back down into the canal, with a pipe to carry the water across the break.

Aqueducts

thumb|upright|The Pompton River aqueduct, which was the longest one at , was just upstream of where US Route 202 crosses the river.

Several aqueducts were built for the canal: the Little Falls Aqueduct over the Passaic River in Paterson, New Jersey, and the Pompton River Aqueduct,

The longest level was , from Bloomfield to Lincoln Park; the second-longest, from Port Murray to Saxon Falls.

Opening of the canal

On November 1, 1830, before the whole canal was finished, the eastern side of the canal between Dover and Newark was tested with several boats loaded with iron ore and iron. These went through the planes without incident. followed by two coal-laden boats went from Phillipsburg all the way to Newark.

Operating years

thumb|upright=1|Scotch or [[reaction turbine taken from Inclined Plane 3 East on display at Hopatcong State Park. This turbine, running with head at 58 rpm, venting 90.6 second feet, gives 30% efficiency. Water goes in the bottom, and comes out the sides, relieving pressure on bearings.]]

Soon after opening, it became apparent that the canal had to be widened and had to be extended across to the New York Bay across Bayonne. The enlarged locks' dimensions were now wide and long. The canal company was reorganized in 1844, with a capitalization of $1 million. The canal bed was inspected, and improvements were made. First, the places where seepage occurred were lined with clay, and two feeders were dug, to Lake Hopatcong and to Pompton. The inclined planes were rebuilt with wire cabling.

{| class="wikitable"

!Year||Tonnage|| ||Year||Tonnage

|1845|| 58,259|| ||1875||491,816

|1850||239,682|| ||1880||503,486

|1855||553,204|| ||1885||364,554

|1860||707,631|| ||1890||394,432

|1865||716,587|| ||1895||270,931

|1866||889,220|| ||1900||125,829

|1870||707,572|| ||1902|| 27,392

Cargo

The Morris canal carried coal, malleable pig iron, and ice. Although it is said that the Morris Canal was mainly a freight canal and not a passenger canal, Additional cargo include scrap metal, zinc, sand, clay, and farm products.

Iron ore from the Ogden Mine was brought to Nolan's Point (Lake Hopatcong). In 1880 the canal transported 1,700 boatloads (about ) of iron ore.

Decline

thumb|William H. Rau, Morris Canal From Green's Bridge, c. 1895

The canal's profitability was undermined by railroads, which could deliver in five hours cargo that took four days by boat. The 1912 survey wrote, "...from Jersey City to Paterson, [the canal] was little more than an open sewer ... but its value beyond Paterson was of great importance, no longer as a freight transit line but as a parkway." Many of the existing photographs of the working canal were shot as part of these surveys, as well as by other people who wanted photographs of the canal before its demise.

The Newark City Subway, now Newark Light Rail, was built along its route.

Canal today

The Morris Canal Historic District was added to the New Jersey Register of Historic Places in 1973 and to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. The canal was listed as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in 1980.

Portions of the canal are preserved. Waterloo Village, a restored canal town in Sussex County, has the remains of an inclined plane, a guard lock, a watered section of the canal, a canal store, and other period buildings. The Canal Society of New Jersey maintains a museum in the village.

Other remnants and artifacts of the canal can be seen along its former course. On the South Kearny, New Jersey, peninsula, where the canal ran just south of and parallel to the Lincoln Highway, now U.S. Route 1/9 Truck, the cross-highway bridges for Central Avenue and the rail spur immediately to its east were built to span the highway and the canal.

The inlet where the canal connected to the Hudson River is now the north edge of Liberty State Park, and the right-of-way of the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail follows the canal for part of its length. Portions of the canal have been converted for other transportation use. In 1871 the Lehigh Valley Railroad built their main line in Jersey City on land adjacent to the canal, and in 1889 built a terminal on the former canal outlet. Adjacent to Newark Bay, the canal became part of New Jersey State Route 440 and a portion of U.S. Route 1/9 Truck extending across South Kearny. In 2000, a portion of the a portion of the canal right-of-way in Jersey City near the Hudson River was used for the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail. In Newark, the canal bed was transformed into the Newark City Subway. Portions of the Garden State Parkway in Bloomfield and Clifton, and nearly all of New Jersey Route 19 in Clifton and Paterson, use the canal right-of-way.

Morris Canal Greenway

The North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority is developing the Morris Canal Greenway, a group of passive recreation parks and preserves along parts of the former canal route.

Parks along the greenway include:

Peckman Preserve
Pompton Aquatic Park
Wayne Township Riverside Park
Walking path in Lincoln Park

Gallery

File:Morris Canal entrance arch (Phillipsburg, N.J.).jpg|Delaware River Portal, canal entrance, Phillipsburg

File:Morris-Canal-Lock-Waterloo-Village.JPG|Lock 3 West, Waterloo Village

File:Morris Canal, Lock 7 West - Bread Lock.jpg|Foundation of the Lock Tender's House at Lock 7 West, the "Bread Lock"

File:Morris Canal Aqueduct, Plane Hill Road, Bowerstown, NJ.jpg|Aqueduct over the Pohatcong Creek by Inclined Plane 7 West, Bowerstown

File:Retaining Wall, Old Bowerstown Road, Bowerstown, NJ.jpg|Sleeper stones from Inclined Plane 7 West used as the base of retaining wall

File:Morris Canal, Inclined Plane 9 West, Port Warren, NJ - tailrace tunnel.jpg|Tailrace tunnel at Inclined Plane 9 West, Port Warren

File:Morris Canal, Inclined Plane 2 East - looking north.jpg|Remains of Inclined Plane 2 East near Ledgewood

File:Waterloo Village, NJ - Morris Canal, ASCE plaque.jpg|National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark plaque for the hydraulic-powered inclined plane system of the Morris Canal near Inclined Plane 4 West

File:Morris Canal, Inclined Plane 4 West, Waterloo Village, NJ - looking northwest.jpg|Inclined Plane 4 West, looking toward Waterloo Village

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Historic images

Image:Inclined_Plane_9_West_near_port_Warren_from_HABS.png|Inclined Plane 9 West, Port Warren, the longest plane, raising boats 100'. One of three double-tracked planes allowing boats to ascend and descend at the same time. The others are 6 West (Port Colden) and 12 East (Newark).

image:Summit_Level_of_Morris_Canal_from_HABS.png|Summit level at Lake Hopatcong

image:Tailrace_of_Inclined_Plane_2_East_on_Morris_Canal_from_HABS.png|Tailrace of Plane 2 East. Water from the turbine comes out from the left. Water on the right is from the bypass flume.

image:Inclined_Plane_12_East_on_Morris_Canal_from_HABS.png|Inclined Plane 12 East, in Newark. This is the third double-tracked plane.

image:Lift bridge at Grove St Jersey City on Morris Canal from HABS (cropped).png|Lift bridge at Grove Street in Jersey City