Lehigh Canal
White and Hazard researched (or invented) emerging technologies as needed, pioneering industrial innovations including the first wire suspension bridge over the Schuylkill River.Experiments with the bear-trap locks gave Bear Lane, an alley in Mauch Chunk off Broadway in today's Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, its name.[7] White and partner Erskine Hazard, who operated a wire mill, foundry and nail factory at the Falls of the Schuylkill, needed energy.After learning the value of anthracite during the British blockades in 1814, White and Hazard joined a number of Philadelphians in a joint-stock venture to build the Schuylkill Canal but quarreled with those on the board of managers who did not favor rapid development.They learned that the managers of the Lehigh Coal Mine Company were willing to option their rights because of their long-term inability to make a profit by transporting anthracite nearly 110 miles (180 km) from Pisgah Ridge.White and Hazard made a proposal specifying improvements for downriver navigation only, and received a charter giving the company ownership of the river in March 1818.The plan for locks and gates for letting out the freshet in a proper manner was left for the present to be devised in due time if found necessary.Sometimes called the Stone Coal Turnpike,[3] the lower canal (46.5 miles (74.8 km)) was built between 1818 and 1820 by the Lehigh Navigation Company to supply coal to Eastern seaboard cities and operated as a toll road with downriver traffic only.A wing wall projected into the upper pool to create slack water next to the loading docks, at the same level as the top of the first guard dam.[f] The cost of building an ark for every load of coal delivered to the Philadelphia docks in 1822 (as LC&N operations were hitting their stride) worried the company's board of directors.By late in the year, White had shifted construction efforts from improving the one-way system (begun in 1818) to a test project on the four upper dams of the canal.The project involved two-way dams and locks with a wider lift channel and lengths of over 120 feet (37 m), capable of taking a steam tug and a coastal cargo ship from 45.6 miles (73.4 km) from the Delaware to the slack-water pool at Mauch Chunk.His plan included locks suitable for a coastal schooner and towing steam tug, the types of boats which dominated ports along the 62 miles (100 km) of the Delaware River controlled by the LC&N.[3] The following year, the legislature rejected his proposal; lumber and timber interests feared that damming would prevent them from rafting logs on the rivers to local sawmills.In 1831, the LC&N stopped making one-way arks and began building large, durable barges, expecting their return via a connection with the Delaware Division of the Pennsylvania Canal in Easton.
U.S. National Register of Historic PlacesU.S. Historic districtGlendon, PennsylvaniaLehigh RiverPennsylvaniaNesquehoningWhite HavenJim ThorpeDelaware RiverEastonNesquehoning CreekLehigh ValleyNortheasternPennsylvania Canal's Delaware DivisionMorris Canalsanthracite coalU.S. East Coastpig ironmanufacturing steelAmerican Industrial Revolutionblue collarLehigh Coal & Navigation CompanyMauch Chunk Switchback RailwayHarper's WeeklyMauch Chunk, PennsylvaniaHauto Tunnelroller coasterLehigh StreetBethlehem, PennsylvaniaanthraciteSharp MountainPisgah RidgeSummit Hill, Pennsylvaniapack animalsPhiladelphiaWar of 1812EnglandJosiah WhiteErskine HazardSchuylkill RiverMauch Chunk CreekJim Thorpe, PennsylvaniaBritish blockades in 1814joint-stock ventureSchuylkill CanalLehigh Coal Mine CompanyFreemansburgtoll roadCoal RegionPanther Creek ValleyBeaver MeadowsBlack CreekPenn Haven Junctionwing wallslack waterBear Mountainlift locksspillwayacre-feetTrentonWilmingtonBristolAllentownMorrisDelaware and Raritan CanalsPennsylvania CanaltowpathsCanvass WhiteMain Line of Public WorksDelaware CanalDelaware Divisionaqueductsweigh lockMorris CanalNew JerseyNew York CityDelaware and Raritan CanalAllegheny FrontescarpmentAllegheny Portage RailroadLehigh GorgereservoirsLehigh and Susquehanna RailroadPittstonrail yardAshleyAshley Planesincline plane railwayPenobscot KnobMountain Topmarshaling yardSchuylkill Valleyembankment damNorth AmericatowpathNational Register of Historic Placescontributing structuresChain BridgeGreek RevivalFederal architectureBethlehemNational Canal MuseumscalesDelaware and Lehigh National Heritage CorridorList of canals in the United StatesAllegheny AqueductDelaware and Hudson CanalChesapeake and Delaware CanalDelmarva PeninsulaDelawareMarylandChesapeake BayDelaware Baycanal agenavigationsIndustrial RevolutionPennsylvania Canal SystemReadingUnion canalLittle SchuylkillTamaquaMount PisgahEast FallsNorth PhiladelphiaWyoming ValleyErie Canal