THE MORRIS CANAL
On December 31, 1824, the New Jersey Legislature chartered the Morris Canal and Banking Company to construct an artificial waterway which would link the Delaware River with the Passaic. It would also provide access to the Pennsylvania anthracite coal mines through a connection with the Lehigh Navigation. Construction of the Morris Canal began in 1825, and it was operating by 1832.
Building the Morris Canal was a remarkable engineering feat since it had to climb 914 feet from tide level at Newark to its summit level at Lake Hopatcong, then descend 760 feet back to the Delaware River level at Phillipsburg. To surmount this mountainous terrain, the Morris Canal utilized 34 locks and 23 inclined planes. These short railways were a unique feature of the Morris Canal. Instead of a series of locks, which would consume vast amounts of water and time to traverse, a water-powered winch was used to haul canal boats overland on railroad tracks laid up a hillside.
By 1836 the Morris Canal had been extended to New York Harbor at Jersey City for a total length of 102 miles. At its western terminus there was a cable ferry across the Delaware River to transfer boats to Pennsylvania's Lehigh Navigation and Delaware Canal. Originally limited to boats carrying 10 tons of cargo, the Morris Canal was progressively enlarged until by 1860 boats carrying more than 70 tons were in widespread use. The company's banking operations, which had helped to finance the canal's construction, were less successful and after an 1844 reorganization, it was limited to canal operation. During the 1850s the waterwheels powering the winches of the inclined planes had been replaced by more efficient water turbines, and iron wire cables replaced the failure-prone chains and hemp ropes that had been used to haul the large rail cars that carried the boats up and down the planes. However, the limited capacity of the planes meant that the Morris would remain the smallest capacity canal of the six anthracite carrying canals in the region.
Although its primary traffic was coal-laden canal boats traveling eastward to the cities, the Morris Canal also became a significant route for the shipment of New Jersey iron ore westward to the Lehigh Valley. The availability of this rich New Jersey magnetite ore helped to make the Lehigh Valley a major center of iron production during the 1840s and 1850s. The Morris Canal reached its peak of prosperity in 1866 when it carried almost 900,000 tons of cargo. However, competition from the rapidly expanding railroads soon decreased the volume of traffic on the canal. In 1871 the Lehigh Valley Railroad leased the Morris Canal and discontinued the connection with the Lehigh Navigation operated by the rival Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company. Under the railroad's management, both revenues and traffic continued to decline. The State of New Jersey took control of the canal in 1922, closing it. In 1924 the Morris Canal was abandoned, and during the next five years it was largely destroyed.
Produced in part by grants from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museums Commission and the Pennsylvania Humanities Council.
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