History
The Delaware Canal stretches from Bristol to Easton along the Delaware River. It was used to haul coal and other products from the Lehigh Canal beginning in Mauch Chunk (today Jim Thorpe) to the industrial centers of the Philadelphia area near Bristol, Pennsylvania. The canal was built in the mid-19th century and ran its last commercial traffic on October 17, 1931. The state bought 40 miles (64 km) of the canal in 1931 and bought the remaining 20 miles (32 km) in 1940.
The Delaware Division of the Pennsylvania Canal and its towpath became Theodore Roosevelt State Park in the early 1950s, when the berms were restored and the canal was refilled with water. The park was renamed Delaware Canal State Park in 1989. The U.S. Congress designated the Delaware Canal as a Registered National Historic Landmark and its towpath is a National Recreation Trail.
From the 1950s until 2004, visitors to the park were given the chance to explore the canal in mule-drawn canal boats operated from a landing at Lock 11 in New Hope, and operated north of that point, terminating about 1 mile (1.6 km) north of the Lock 11 landing, near the Rabbit Run and U.S. Route 202 bridges, but was able to navigate all the way to the Virginia Forrest Recreation Area, about 4.5 miles (7.2 km) north of the Lock 11 landing for private parties. Due to lack of maintenance of the canal by DCNR and floods, the barge concession was forced out of business.
Read more about this topic: Delaware Canal State Park
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