Morris Canal - History

History

The idea for constructing the canal is credited to Morristown businessman George P. MacCulloch, who reportedly conceived the idea 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: "...Membership of a committee which studied the practicality of a canal from Pennsylvania to Newark, New Jersey, consisted of two prominent citizens from each county (NJ) concerned: Hunterdon County, Nathaniel Saxton, Henry Dusenberry; Sussex County, Morris Robinson, Gamaliel Bartlett; Morris County, Lewis Condict, Mahlon Dickerson; Essex County, Gerald Rutgers, Charles Kinsey; Bergen County, John Rutherford, William Colefax...".

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 and determine the canal's possible route and an estimate of its costs. Macculloch initially greatly underestimated the height difference between the Passaic and Lake Hopatcong, pegging it at only 185 ft (56 m).

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. The original company failed in 1841 and was reorganized in 1844. Banking privileges were dropped in 1849, leaving the company as a canal-operating business only.

The original design of the canal allowed for boats of 25 tons, small by the standards of the day. By 1860, the canal had been progressively enlarged to allow for boats of 70 tons. Traffic reached a peak in 1866, when the canal carried 889,220 tons of freight (equivalent to nearly 13,000 boat loads). Between 1848 and 1860, the original overshot water wheels that powered the inclined planes were replaced with more powerful water turbines. The original iron chains used for towing the plane cars also were replaced with wire cables.

In 1871, the canal was leased by the Lehigh Valley Railroad, primarily to give that railroad the use of the valuable terminal properties at Phillipsburg and Jersey City. By 1871, however, the canal was already on the decline, and the Lehigh Valley Railroad never realized a profit from the operation of the canal. By the early 20th century, commercial traffic on the canal had become negligible. In 1922 the state of New Jersey took control of the canal and formally abandoned it in 1924; between 1924 and 1929, it was largely dismantled. The Newark City Subway, now Newark Light Rail was built along its route.

Portions of the canal are preserved around the state. Important among these is Waterloo Village, a restored canal town in Sussex County, which contains many features of the canal, including 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.

The inlet where the canal connected to the Hudson River is now the north edge of Liberty State Park. Other remnants and artifacts of the canal can be seen along its former course. For example, on the South Kearny, NJ, 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, resulting in spans that today seem unnecessarily long.