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107-552: A copy of a detailed survey blueprint of the entire canal system including structures and property ownership details was donated (date unknown) by the Safe Harbor Water Power Corporation to Millersville University (assessed on 10/06/2016 in the MU Archives at Sp. Coll. Map 386.409748 S128 Folio). The survey consists of 67 pages, 98 x 30 cm. and is undated but the assumption is the original

214-496: A 36-mile (58 km) route that included 11 levels, 10 inclined planes fitted with stationary engines that could raise and lower boats and cargo, a 900-foot (270 m), viaduct over the Little Conemaugh River , and many bridges. Infrastructure included 153 drains and culverts . The railroad climbed 1,398 feet (426 m) from the eastern canal basin at Hollidaysburg and 1,171 feet (357 m) from

321-666: A Railroad to be constructed at the expense of the state and to be styled "The Pennsylvania Railroad" (Act of March 24, 1828, Pamph. Laws, p. 221) . Begun with Navigations construction along the Susquehanna and the West Fork of the Susquehanna with surveys for the best route over the barrier of the northern Allegheny Mountains , the system in time ran from Philadelphia on the Delaware estuary westwards across

428-528: A canal along the lower Susquehanna linking Chesapeake Bay to Pennsylvania's Main Line of Public Works at Columbia, Pennsylvania , across the river from Wrightsville. Residents of the rival port city of Philadelphia, fearing loss of trade to Baltimore, argued against the proposal. In 1829, completion of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal across an isthmus south of Philadelphia, resolved the impasse by shortening

535-913: A canal by the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad at historic Wright's Ferry . Engineers faced complications at the northern end of the Eastern Division Canal, where it met the Juniata Division Canal and the Susquehanna Division Canal at Duncan's Island. Boats had to cross from one side of the Susquehanna River to the other between either the Susquehanna Division or the Juniata Division on the west side and

642-489: A change in elevation of 584 feet (178 m) over the full length of the canal, which opened in 1832. From the canal basin, westbound boats began their journey by being elevated about 10 feet (3 m) by a lock that brought them to the level of a wooden aqueduct on which they were towed 600 feet (183 m) to the south side of the Juniata. At North's Island, 18 miles (29 km) from the Susquehanna, they were towed by

749-466: A clause in the charter granted only that part of the peninsula that had not already been colonized by Europeans by 1632. Over a century later, it was decided in the case of Penn v Lord Baltimore that, because the Dutch had colonized Zwaanendael in 1631, the portion of Maryland's charter granting Delaware to Maryland was void. The peninsula was the premier location for truck farming of vegetables during

856-755: A date of the survey having been completed in 1875 include the fact that the John Bair Warehouse (now Tucquan Club) completed in 1879 (date stone in surviving building) was not on the survey (see map page 23). However, the York Furnace Bridge ruins are indicated. The bridge was destroyed in 1856. This suggests a date between 1856 and 1879. The confirmation comes from the biography of William H. Dechant of Reading. See Reading and Berks County, Pennsylvania: A History, Volume 3 , page 198, Lewis Historical Pub. Co., New York, 1925, by Cyrus T. Fox. Therein it specifically confirms that Mr Dechant,

963-598: A difficult energy crisis, and bituminous coal imports from Liverpool, England, ground to a halt under an 1812 embargo. Industrialists in Philadelphia pressed for some solution to their foundries' fuel needs and by year's end, legislation was on the books for improving the Schuylkill River into the Schuylkill Canal . But this project was underfunded, and other canals were completed first, including

1070-472: A few years later. The route was nearly the same, but the Delaware Canal as the state built it had numerous engineering flaws, including locks both too short and unpaired (single & supporting only one way traffic) locks LC&N's experience and expertise would have mitigated. LC&N had started coal flowing to Philadelphia using short squared-off blocky barges it called coal arks , but in 1822-23

1177-582: A means of transporting freight between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh . It funded the construction of various long-proposed canal and road projects, mostly in southern Pennsylvania, that became a canal system and later added railroads. Built between 1826 and 1834, it established the Pennsylvania Canal System and the Allegheny Portage Railroad . Later amendments substituted a new technology, railroads , in place of

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1284-529: A reliable inexpensive fuel and proved that once-treacherous inland Pennsylvania waterways could be engineered into profitable industrial shipping routes. A couple years later, the legislature declined another offer by the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company (LC&N) which had built the Lehigh Canal with private funds. LC&N was unquestionably one of the most innovative companies of the era, driving

1391-559: A separate amending act, the state authorized the Delaware Canal, which was delayed for a few more years costing LC&N many dollars, until it was finally dug alongside, and generally in sight of the Delaware River between Easton down river to Bristol. When completed in 1832 by the state it also didn't work—having leaking issues and water supply problems like those that plagued the Union Canal and Schuylkill Navigation, and

1498-664: A two-square-mile (5.2 km ) reservoir. Dubbed Lake Conemaugh , it supplied water to the Western Division Canal. When canal traffic declined, the lake and dam were abandoned, then sold to the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1857; the railroad in turn sold them to private interests. They were purchased by the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club in 1879, and a private resort was built surrounding the lake. On May 31, 1889, following heavy rains,

1605-451: A variation of Southern American English which is particularly prevalent in rural areas. Delmarva is driven by agriculture and commercial fishing. Most of the land is rural, with a few large population centers, though tourism has been an important part of the region. Delmarva has longstanding Catholic roots, but now Protestants are more numerous, with Methodism being particularly strongly represented. Numerous Catholic churches dating to

1712-409: A water powered continuous rope to the north side of the river across a slack water pool formed by a dam. From North's Island to Huntingdon, the river was dammed in three more places to feed water to the canal, and above Huntingdon, 14 more dams were needed to create 16 miles (26 km) of slack water navigation in the river to supplement 22 miles (35 km) of travel in segments of canal. In addition,

1819-419: A young surveyor for Reading Railroad, completed the survey in 1875 from Columbia, PA to Havre de Grace, MD. Also see, The_Aegis_and_Intelligencer_Fri__Jul_30__1875, page where it states Mr Dechant finished a complete map of the canal to Havre de Grace in 1875. In the 1820s, seeking raw materials from and trade with Pennsylvania's interior counties, residents of the large port city of Baltimore favored building

1926-610: Is a clipped compound of Delaware , Maryland , and Virginia ( official abbreviation VA ), which in turn was modeled after Delmar , a border town named after Delaware and Maryland. While Delmar was founded and named in 1859, the earliest uses of the name Delmarva occurred several years later (for example on February 10, 1877, in The Middletown Transcript newspaper in Middletown, Delaware ) and appear to have been commercial and booster -driven; for example,

2033-689: Is a list of some of the notable cities and towns on the peninsula. At its southern tip, the Delmarva Peninsula is connected to Virginia Beach and Hampton Roads , Virginia, via the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel which opened in 1964. The bridge tunnel is owned and administered by the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel District .     State capital and county seat ‡     County seat † At various times in history, residents of

2140-535: Is a pamphlet written for The City History Society of Philadelphia and read at the meeting of March 15, 1921. Download coordinates as: Delmarva Peninsula 38°30′N 75°40′W  /  38.500°N 75.667°W  / 38.500; -75.667 The Delmarva Peninsula , or simply Delmarva , is a large peninsula on the East Coast of the United States , occupied by the vast majority of

2247-527: Is a rare breed of chicken created on the peninsula. Tourism is a major contributor to the peninsula's economy with the beaches at Rehoboth Beach, Delaware , Ocean City, Maryland , Assateague Island National Seashore , Maryland, and Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge , Virginia, being popular tourist destinations. Salisbury University also adds to the economic activity of the Delmarva, with an estimated $ 480 million in contribution impact. The University

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2354-465: Is overshadowed by proximate major airports in Baltimore and Philadelphia. Its airports include Wilmington Airport southwest of Wilmington, Delaware, Salisbury Regional Airport to the southeast of Salisbury, Maryland, and Dover Air Force Base to the southeast of Dover, Delaware. Major north–south highways include U.S. 9 , U.S. 13 , U.S. 50 and U.S. 301 . Highways U.S. 50 and U.S. 301 run over

2461-633: Is the largest four year comprehensive on the Eastern Shore , and serves as the largest employer other than Perdue supporting an estimated 3,200 jobs. The area is served by four television markets. Cecil, Kent, Queen Anne's, Caroline and Talbot Counties in Maryland are primarily served by the Baltimore , Maryland, designated market area and stations WBAL-TV , WJZ-TV , WMAR-TV and WBFF-TV . New Castle and Kent Counties in Delaware are served by

2568-644: The Cape Charles, Virginia , ferry docks and it ran the Cavalier counterpart night train. At that point, ferries ran to Norfolk, Virginia . In earlier decades branches ran to Centreville, Maryland ; Oxford, Maryland ; Cambridge, Maryland ; Georgetown and Lewes, Delaware ; and to Franklin City, Virginia . Today, the Delmarva Central Railroad provides freight and tanker transportation on

2675-620: The Chesapeake Bay Bridge on the western side of the peninsula. U.S. 13 at the southern limit of the peninsula connects through the Chesapeake Bay Bridge–Tunnel to the main part of Virginia. Until 1957, the Pennsylvania Railroad provided service to the peninsula. It ran the Del-Mar-Va Express day train from New York City, through Wilmington , Dover , Delmar, Salisbury , and Pocomoke City to

2782-671: The Civil War hastened the decline. In 1872, the company sold its assets to the Philadelphia and Reading Railway Company , which used the canal to haul coal to Baltimore until 1894, during the Reading's first receivership (caused by the Panic of 1893 ). The Pennsylvania Railroad opened the Columbia and Port Deposit Railroad across the river in 1877. The canal had 29 locks overcoming 231 feet (70 m) of elevation. At Wrightsville and

2889-651: The Delmarva Heat, Light, and Refrigerating Corp. of Chincoteague, Virginia , was in existence by 1913 —but general use of the term did not occur until the 1920s. At the northern point of the peninsula there is a geographic fall line that separates the crystalline rocks of the Piedmont from the unconsolidated sediments of the Coastal Plain. This line passes through Newark, Delaware , and Wilmington, Delaware , and Elkton, Maryland . The northern isthmus of

2996-640: The Indian River inlet in Delaware. The upper peninsula and the Chesapeake shore was the home of Nanticoke -speaking people such as the Nentigo and Choptank . The Assateague and Nentigo made a number of treaties with the colony of Maryland, but the land was gradually taken and those treaties dissolved for the use of the colonists, and the native peoples of the peninsula assimilated into other Algonquian tribes as far north as Ontario . Currently,

3103-667: The Lehigh Canal (which White had full ownership of by 1818 ) to Easton, Pennsylvania . An employee of White's had figured out how to get "Rock Coal" to burn properly during the War of 1812 renewing serious interest in exploiting these relatively untapped coal resources within the Pennsylvanian interior. White had previously looking for a source of coal in 1815, finding the mines of the failing and unreliable Lehigh Coal Mine Company , which would eventually deliver more coal through

3210-525: The Lehigh Canal in late 1820 and the Erie Canal in 1821. By mid-decade canal projects and some railroads were being proposed, organized, chartered, and built in Pennsylvania and other northeast seaboard states. In 1823, Pennsylvania industrialist Josiah White proposed creating a navigational canal that would allow deep keeled coastal ships to reach docks and pickup and transship coal down

3317-602: The Maryland Senate . The following year, a Caroline County representative proposed allowing the Eastern Shore to secede via referendum, but the Maryland House of Delegates voted 60–5 to indefinitely postpone the measure, and that proposal was never taken up again. In 1851, Dorchester County delegate and future Maryland Governor Thomas Holliday Hicks proposed an amendment that would give the Eastern Shore

Susquehanna and Tidewater Canal - Misplaced Pages Continue

3424-644: The National Register of Historic Places . The Susquehanna Museum in Havre de Grace has restored the lock house and other infrastructure at the southern terminus of the canal. On the Pennsylvania side, Lock #12 has been preserved by PPL along Pennsylvania Route 372 at the south end of the Norman Wood Bridge across the Susquehanna River. A footpath along the river leading from Lock 12 <39.813674, -76.328744> passes under highway Route 372 to

3531-674: The Philadelphia , Pennsylvania, designated market area and stations WPVI-TV , WCAU-TV , KYW-TV and WTXF-TV . Sussex, Dorchester, Wicomico, Worcester and Somerset Counties are served by the Salisbury, Maryland , designated market area, the only based on the peninsula. These stations are WBOC-TV , WMDT-TV , and WRDE-LD . Accomack and Northampton Counties are primarily served by the Norfolk / Virginia Beach designated market area and stations WAVY-TV , WVEC-TV and WTKR-TV . The peninsula has minor airports with few commercial carriers, as it

3638-726: The Piedmont region transitions into the coastal plain. Its Atlantic Ocean coast is formed by the Virginia Barrier Islands in the south and Cape Henlopen in the north, encompassing Ocean City, Maryland, and the Delaware Beaches from Fenwick Island to Lewes. The peninsula has a humid subtropical climate ( Cfa ) according to the Köppen climate classification . According to the Trewartha climate classification ,

3745-737: The Reading Railroad , then headed northwest across the Columbia Bridge over the Schuylkill River . Just after crossing the river, it traveled up the Belmont Plane, an inclined plane in the current location of West Fairmount Park , and continued west across the eastern part of the state to Columbia , where the Columbia Plane headed down to the Susquehanna River . At that point, the eastern division of

3852-463: The navigations improving commerce on the Lehigh and Schuylkill Rivers , though in 1824 both systems needed further development. But the same decision makers were also continually reading the copious press coverage about the progress, the works designs, and engineering feats accomplished or building as the Erie Canal progressed. Philadelphia's luminaries were vying with other coastal cities to become

3959-548: The 17th century are still operating, such as Old Bohemia Church, which is dedicated to Saint Francis Xavier in Cecil County, Maryland . There are several historically significant Episcopalian churches, such as Old Trinity Church in southern Dorchester County and Christ Church in Cambridge, Maryland . The border between Maryland and Delaware, which resulted from the 80-year-long Penn–Calvert Boundary Dispute , consists of

4066-492: The 1810s the population west of the mountains was exploding. Regional transport hubs were established in Brownsville , Pittsburgh , Cincinnati , Buffalo , Detroit , and New Orleans (and later in the 1840s St. Louis , Chicago , and St. Joseph , Missouri would develop similarly). The markets of this burgeoning population were targeted by the business class of Philadelphia and New Jersey. The War of 1812 exacerbated

4173-548: The 19th and early 20th centuries. Though it has been largely eclipsed by California's production, the area still produces significant quantities of tomatoes , green beans , corn , soybeans — Queen Anne's County is the largest producer of soy beans in Maryland—and other popular vegetables. The Eastern Shore is also known for its poultry farms, the most well-known of which is Perdue Farms , founded in Salisbury. The Delaware

4280-599: The Allegheny River and terminate in Pittsburgh, while residents of the borough of Allegheny favored a north bank canal ending in the borough, across the river from Pittsburgh. Eventually, the canal was run along the physically more favorable north bank, but the state agreed to build the main terminal and turning basin in Pittsburgh and a secondary terminal and connecting canal, the Allegheny Outlet, in

4387-610: The Columbia–;Wrightsville canal basin , it connected with the Pennsylvania Canal 's Eastern Division, part of the Main Line of Public Works. Cargo included coal, lumber, grain, and iron, much of it bound for Baltimore or Philadelphia. Boats passed through a weigh lock at York Furnace, where tolls were paid. Teams of mules walked on towpaths beside the canal and pulled the boats. At the upper terminus, across

Susquehanna and Tidewater Canal - Misplaced Pages Continue

4494-729: The Conemaugh River to form the Kiskiminetas River, recognizes the canal's economic contribution to Saltsburg . Download coordinates as: For more on the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad , see William Hasell Wilson, The Columbia-Philadelphia Railroad and Its Successor (1896). A reprint of this booklet was issued in 1985. See also John C. Trautwine, Jr., The Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad of 1834 , in Philadelphia History , Vol. 2, No. 7 (Philadelphia, PA: City History Soc. of Philadelphia, 1925). This

4601-432: The Delmarva Peninsula have proposed that its Maryland and Virginia portions secede from their respective states, merging with Kent County and Sussex County, Delaware, to create the state of Delmarva. A Delmarva State Party with this aim was founded in 1992. A combined population with the Eastern Shores of Maryland and Virginia, with the aforementioned two Delaware counties, would be about 750,000, or 921,739 in 2020, roughly

4708-400: The Delmarva Peninsula help to document a pre-Clovis presence in the Middle Atlantic region. Thus, these sites suggest a human presence in the Middle Atlantic region during the Last Glacial Maximum . In 1970 a stone tool (a biface ) said to resemble Solutrean stone tools was dredged up by the trawler Cinmar off the east coast of Virginia in an area that would have been dry land prior to

4815-409: The Eastern Division on the east side. They solved the problem by building a dam 1,998 feet (609 m) long and 8.5 feet (2.6 m) high between the lower end of Duncan's Island and the east bank of the Susquehanna. This formed a pool across which boats could be pulled from a wooden, two-tier towpath bridge at Clark's Ferry. Two Duncan's Island lift locks raised or lowered the boats traveling between

4922-437: The Kiskiminetas and Conemaugh Rivers to Blairsville and then to the western end of the Allegheny Portage Railroad at Johnstown. East of Tunnelton, the route went through a canal tunnel of 817 feet (249 m) built to avoid a long loop of the Conemaugh River. The first fully loaded freight boat traveled from Johnstown to Pittsburgh in 1831; the route through Grant's Hill opened in 1832. Over its length of 104 miles (167 km),

5029-408: The Lehigh Canal than all of the coal they had previously delivered to market since their founding in 1792. White expected to construct a canal system to ship the coal, but efforts to improve shipping capabilities on the Schuylkill Navigation was lagging hope when backers took to quarreling over the best way to proceed. White distanced himself from that project and settled for an alternative route down

5136-441: The Lehigh and Delaware rivers. After surveying and deciding improving navigation on the Lehigh could be feasible, returned to lease the operations of the Lehigh Coal Mine Company and improve navigability on the Lehigh river. The first 60 miles of this planned canal project would follow the Delaware River from Easton to the Philadelphia suburb town of Bristol , and would later become the Delaware Canal . By 1818, White had obtained

5243-419: The Lehigh until the 1960s. While some problems were fixable, the Delaware Canal 's lock's design was always a costly economic problem until the Canal became the parkland and current haven for pleasure boats. White and Hazard made the offer in return for a break on tolls, and even included an offer to operate the system at cost—the state garnering all the tolls. This offer too was declined, and in 1827 in

5350-420: The Pacific Ocean to a company of colonists in a series of charters from 1606 to 1611. This included a piece of the peninsula. The land was transferred from the Duke of York to William Penn in 1682 and was governed with Pennsylvania . The exact border was determined by the Chancery Court in 1735. In 1776, the counties of Kent , New Castle , and Sussex declared their independence from Pennsylvania and entered

5457-408: The Philadelphia Electric Company, and now owned by its successor, Exelon . Its rights as a Maryland corporation, dating to 1783, allowed the construction of the Conowingo Dam . Download coordinates as: https://thelockhousemuseum.org Main Line of Public Works The Main Line of Public Works was a package of legislation passed by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1826 to establish

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5564-446: The Pocomoke to the Atlantic Ocean. All three counties in Delaware, New Castle (partially), Kent , and Sussex , are located on the peninsula. Of the 23 counties in Maryland, nine are on the Eastern Shore : Kent , Queen Anne's , Talbot , Caroline , Dorchester , Wicomico , Somerset , and Worcester , as well as a portion of Cecil County . Two Virginia counties are on the peninsula: Accomack and Northampton . The following

5671-528: The Revolutionary War wound down in the 1780s, many family groups moved west, establishing scattered settlements from below the Wyoming Valley across the near west into the retreating western frontiers and the lands of the old Ohio Country . In the early 1800s, the new farms established along the moving frontier west of the Appalachian mountains were being connected back to Atlantic seaboard cities by turnpikes, canals, and other transportation infrastructure works funded mostly by private funds or local governments. By

5778-417: The South Fork Dam failed, sending 20 million tons (18.2 million cubic meters) of water down the gorge toward Johnstown. More than 2,200 people were killed. The Tunnelview Historical Site shows where in 1830 a canal tunnel of 817 feet (249 m) was built through Bow Ridge to avoid a long bend on the Conemaugh River, 10 miles (16 km) west of Blairsville. Saltsburg Canal Park, where Loyalhanna Creek joins

5885-413: The Spanish believed the Chesapeake to be an opening to the fabled Northwest Passage . However, a storm thwarted their attempts at establishing a colony. The land that is currently Delaware was first colonized by the Dutch West India Company in 1631 as Zwaanendael . That colony lasted one year before a dispute with local Indians led to its destruction. In 1638, New Sweden was established which colonized

5992-405: The Susquehanna Canal, as the company was called, succeeded by 1802 in completing a canal of 9 miles (14 km) along the east bank of the river from the Chesapeake Bay to the Pennsylvania state line. The Proprietors hoped the Pennsylvania legislature would allow an extension on the other side of the state line; however, no canal below Columbia, Pennsylvania, was approved by Pennsylvania until after

6099-414: The United States as the state of Delaware . In the 1632 Charter of Maryland, King Charles I of England granted "all that Part of the Peninsula, or Chersonese, lying in the Parts of America, between the Ocean on the East and the Bay of Chesapeake on the West, divided from the Residue thereof by a Right Line drawn from the Promontory, or Head-Land, called Watkin's Point, situate upon the Bay aforesaid, near

6206-420: The United States' most important and influential port as the country's population expanded westward to the Ohio Country and Northwest Territory regions. The system would also not only open better access to the newly opened Southeastern Coal Region and the initial mines in the Panther Creek Valley but authorized an extension of the Lehigh Canal up to White Haven, and a railroad connecting that upper canal with

6313-420: The University of Delaware. These factors led Stanford and Bradley to reiterate in 2014 their academic advocacy of pre-Clovis peoples in North America and their possible link to paleolithic Europeans. Native settlements relocated as natural conditions dictated. They set up villages – scattered groups of thatch houses and cultivated gardens – where conditions favored farming. In the spring they planted crops, which

6420-439: The borough. Getting the main canal across the Allegheny River into Pittsburgh required an aqueduct of 1,140 feet (347 m), the longest on the Pennsylvania Main Line route. Linking to the Ohio River at Pittsburgh, the Western Division Canal also linked, through a tunnel of 810 feet (250 m) under Grant's Hill in Pittsburgh, with the Monongahela River . Subsequent Western Division Canal extensions went from Freeport up

6527-432: The canal and the Allegheny Portage Railroad. The Pennsylvania Main Line Canal, Juniata Division, Canal Section was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2002. From 1834 until 1854, when the Pennsylvania Railroad Company finished a competing line, the Allegheny Portage Railroad made continuous boat traffic possible over the Allegheny Mountains between the Juniata and Western Division Canals. It followed

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6634-455: The canal continued north along the river and then west. The Northern Liberties and Penn Township Railroad was incorporated in 1829 to build a branch continuing east on Noble Street and Willow Street to the Delaware River . This opened in 1834. The Belmont Plane ran from the Schuylkill River for 2,805 feet (855 m), rising 1 foot (0.3 m) per 15 feet (4.6 m) for a total rise of 187 feet (57 m). Steam-driven cables dragged

6741-402: The canal employed 68 locks, 16 river dams, and 16 aqueducts. From Freeport, a separate extension, the Kittanning Feeder, ran 14 miles (23 km) up the Allegheny River to Kittanning. The 1889 Johnstown Flood was caused by the failure of the South Fork Dam , part of the Main Line of Public Works. The dam across the Little Conemaugh River in the hills above Johnstown, Pennsylvania , created

6848-409: The coal sources in the Wyoming Valley . All the eastern projects were to reliably provide clean-burning anthracite coal to eastern cities that had already consumed much of the eastern forests for heating fuel. The rail portions of the system were authorized in 1828 by an act of the Pennsylvania General Assembly entitled An act relative to the Pennsylvania Canal, and to provide for the commencement of

6955-431: The dam pool and the other canals. The Juniata Division Canal was approved in segments starting in 1827 with a canal from near Duncan's Island in the Susquehanna River to Lewistown, 40 miles (64 km) upstream. Subsequently, the state agreed to extend the canal to Hollidaysburg and the eastern end of the Allegheny Portage Railroad, 127 miles (204 km) from the Susquehanna. A total of 86 locks were required to overcome

7062-403: The east–west Transpeninsular Line and the perpendicular north–south portion of the Mason–Dixon line extending north to just beyond its tangential intersection with the Twelve-Mile Circle which forms Delaware's border with Pennsylvania . The border between Maryland and Virginia on the peninsula follows the Pocomoke River from the Chesapeake to a series of straight surveyed lines connecting

7169-444: The great plain of southern Pennsylvania (goal of connecting the Susquehanna to New York City via canals) through Harrisburg and across the state to Pittsburgh and connected with other divisions of the Pennsylvania Canal . It consisted of the following principal sections, moving from east to west: The canals reduced travel time between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh from at least 23 days to just four. The Main Line of Public Works

7276-410: The lack of a tow path canal for the sixty miles Easton-Philadelphia was very costly to LC&N, and the state's Delaware Canal attempt when opened in 1832 was five years later than promised and didn't work; the State had to hire Josiah White to repair its major deficiencies, then needed LC&N's expertise to operate it. LC&N ended up running both canals into the 1930s, and retained the rights to

7383-496: The legal permissions "to ruin himself" fixing up the Lehigh, founding the Lehigh Navigation Company and using a quasi-lock of his own design to construct what is now known as the Lower Lehigh Canal between 1818 and 1820. The works had made sufficient improvements by late 1820 to deliver 365 tons of anthracite coal to Easton — by 1825 the annual anthracite tonnage had climbed to over 28,000 short tons (25,000 t) per annum. White's ventures firmly established anthracite as

7490-411: The mining, transportation and industrial development of Pennsylvania by example, implementation, and by funding quite a few projects, as well. This new proposal was to build— at the companies expense — the project that would (in concept) become their version of the eventual Delaware Canal (alternatively the 'Delaware Division of the Pennsylvania Canal') built by the states engineering managers

7597-406: The mouth of the Juniata River. The canal included 14 locks with an average lift of 7.5 feet (2.3 m). The state originally planned a canal of 24 miles (39 km) running between the Union Canal at Middletown to the Juniata. However, the plan changed in 1828, when the state opted to extend the Eastern Division 19 miles (31 km) further south to connect with the newly decided replacement of

7704-531: The native people would abandon the site and move to another location. The primary Indigenous peoples of the ocean side of the lower peninsula prior to the arrival of Europeans were the Assateague , including the Assateague, Transquakin, Choptico , Moteawaughkin, Quequashkecaquick, Hatsawap, Wachetak, Marauqhquaick, and Manaskson. Their territories and populations ranged from Cape Charles, Virginia , to

7811-579: The next towpath canal. Long before the opening of the Susquehanna and Tidewater Canal, the Maryland legislature of 1783, hoping to open a reliable trade route along the lower Susquehanna River, had granted a charter to a company of 40 men, mostly from Baltimore, to build a canal called the Susquehanna Canal .James Brindley (1745-1820) was the Chief Engineer for the project until it was suspended in 1786 for lack of funds. The Proprietors of

7918-466: The north and Salisbury, Maryland , near its center. Including all offshore islands, the largest of which is Kent Island in Maryland , the total land area south of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal is 5,454 sq mi (14,130 km ). At the 2000 census the total population was 681,030, giving an average population density of 124.86 inhabitants per square mile (48.21/km ). Cape Charles forms

8025-694: The northern half has a temperate or oceanic climate ( Do ). The culture of Delmarva is starkly different from the rest of the Mid-Atlantic region and is much like that of the Southern United States . While the northern portion of Delmarva, such as the Wilmington metro area, is similar to the urban regions of Philadelphia, the Maryland, Virginia, and "Slower Lower" Delaware counties are more conservative than their "mainland" counties. It has been suggested that Delmarva residents have

8132-563: The northern part of the state, together with the Delaware Valley . Eventually, the Dutch, who had maintained that their claim to Delaware arose from the colony of 1631, recaptured Delaware and incorporated the colony into the Colony of New Netherland . However, shortly thereafter Delaware came under British control in 1664. James I of England had granted Virginia 400 miles of Atlantic coast centered on Cape Comfort , extending west to

8239-608: The opening in 1829 of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal. It cut across the northern isthmus of the Delmarva Peninsula and made a lower Susquehanna canal more appealing to Philadelphia. A combination of high costs, faulty construction, and low revenues led the Proprietors to sell the Susquehanna Canal at a loss in 1817, and it was abandoned entirely in 1840 when the Susquehanna and Tidewater Canal opened on

8346-761: The opposite side of the river. The Susquehanna Canal was also known as the Port Deposit Canal or the Conowingo Canal , not to be confused with the Conewago Canal upstream near York Haven. Remnants of the canal can be seen at Susquehanna State Park in Harford County, Maryland , 3 miles (4.8 km) northwest of Havre de Grace as part of the Southern Terminal, Susquehanna and Tidewater Canal historic district listed on

8453-537: The peninsula is transected by the sea-level Chesapeake and Delaware Canal . Several bridges cross the canal, and the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and the Chesapeake Bay Bridge–Tunnel join the peninsula to mainland Maryland and Virginia, respectively. Another point of access is Lewes, Delaware , reachable by the Cape May–Lewes Ferry from Cape May , New Jersey . Dover, Delaware , is the peninsula's largest city by population. The main commercial areas are Dover in

8560-461: The peninsula is within the traditional territory of the Piscataway , Nentego, and Lenape peoples. In 1566, an expedition sent from Spanish Florida by Pedro Menéndez de Avilés reached the Delmarva Peninsula. The expedition consisted of two Dominican friars, thirty soldiers and an indigenous Virginia boy, Don Luis , in an effort to set up a Spanish colony in the Chesapeake. At the time,

8667-518: The planned but costly 82-mile (132 km) canal connecting the Delaware River in Philadelphia to the Susquehanna River . The route from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh remained a patchwork of canals and railroads until the Pennsylvania Railroad was built in the 1850s. Trans-Appalachian settlement had begun in earnest during the latter years of the French and Indian War (1754-1763). Following

8774-520: The population of South Dakota . Including New Castle County, Delaware , the combined population would be 1,492,458 in 2020, roughly the population of Hawaii or New Hampshire . Legislative attempts to break away the Eastern Shore counties of Maryland and join them with Delaware were made several times. In November 1776, delegates from the Eastern Shore attempted to insert a clause into the Maryland Declaration of Rights that would allow

8881-718: The pre-industrialization period. After the 1779 Sullivan Expedition broke the power of the Five Civilized Nations of the Iroquois towards the end of the American Revolutionary War , settlement became viable from the lower Susquehanna Valley to Upstate New York as far as Lake Erie . The U.S. was able to claim trans-Appalachian territories from the Ohio River to the lower Great Lakes , and west to Minnesota and Wisconsin . As

8988-507: The railway cars to the top of Belmont Hill. The Plane was the site of a signal event in railroad history. On July 10, 1836, the Philadelphia -based Norris Locomotive Works drove a 4-2-0 locomotive up the Incline, making it the first steam locomotive to climb an ascending grade while pulling a load. The 14,400-pound (6,500 kg) engine, named George Washington , hauled a load of 19,200 pounds (8,709 kg), including 24 people riding on

9095-414: The right to vote itself into Delaware, but the amendment failed 51–27. Some studies have shown that Native Americans inhabited the peninsula from about 10,000 BC to 8000 BC – since the last ice age . Recent research indicates that Paleoamericans inhabited Maryland during the pre-Clovis period (before 13,000 BP ). Miles Point, Oyster Cove, and Cator's Cove archaeological sites on the coastal plain of

9202-625: The rising sea levels of the Pleistocene Epoch. The tool was allegedly found in the same dredge load that contained a mastodon 's remains. The mastodon tusks were later determined to be 22,000 years old. However, studies conducted on nearby Parsons Island demonstrate that the stratigraphy of the region is disturbed. In addition several archaeological sites on the Delmarva peninsula with suggestive (but not definitive) dating between 16,000 and 18,000 years have been discovered by Darrin Lowery of

9309-831: The river Wigloo, on the West, unto the main Ocean on the East; and between that Boundary on the South, unto that Part of the Bay of Delaware on the North, which lieth under the Fortieth Degree of North Latitude from the Equinoctial, where New England is terminated" to Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore , as the colony of Maryland. This would have included all of present-day Delaware ; however,

9416-424: The river from Columbia, a wooden bridge with a two-tier tow path allowed mules going in opposite directions to cross the Susquehanna River simultaneously without colliding. From the canal outlet at Havre de Grace, tugs pulled the boats to Baltimore or other destinations. Mules on the Baltimore boats waited in Havre de Grace for the return journey, while boats bound for Philadelphia took their mules with them to use on

9523-608: The route of present-day Montgomery Avenue in Lower Merion Township, was abandoned. The Columbia Bridge and line east to Broad and Vine Streets were sold to the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad as part of its main line. The Reading acquired the Northern Liberties and Penn Township Railroad in 1870, giving it access to the Delaware River. The section of the old Pennsylvania Railroad running from Philadelphia west through Chester County and, by extension,

9630-509: The ruins of Locks 13. Lock 14 no longer exists. Preserved Lock 15 <39° 48.009'N 76° 18.481'W> is accessible by car 1.5 miles south of Lock 12 along River Road where can be found interpretive panels about the canal operation. Lock 11 (removed) was located at the spillway (kayak feature) of the Holtwood Dam. As a corporate entity, the corporation known as The Proprietors of the Susquehanna Canal still exists, having been purchased by

9737-626: The section from 52nd Street west to the main line at Rosemont . The state built the rest from 52nd Street east to downtown, but on a different alignment than the one originally planned; the new line, put into operation October 15, 1850, ended at the west end of the Market Street Bridge , from which the City Railroad continued east. The old line, which ran from the Schuylkill River up the Belmont Plane to Ardmore along

9844-534: The shore counties to secede from Maryland, with the clause being defeated 30–17. In 1833, the secession movement came close to succeeding: a Delaware resolution proposing the Eastern Shore of Maryland be absorbed into Delaware passed the Delaware Senate and Delaware House of Representatives , then passed the Maryland House of Delegates with a 40–24 vote, but failed to be voted out of committee by

9951-554: The southern tip of the peninsula in Virginia . The entire Delmarva Peninsula falls within the Atlantic Coastal Plain , a flat and sandy area with very few or no hills; the highest point in the peninsula is only 102 ft (31 m) above sea level. The fall line , found in the region southwest of Wilmington, Delaware, and just north of the northern edge of the Delmarva Peninsula, is a geographic borderland where

10058-593: The southwest, and the Delaware River , Delaware Bay , and the Atlantic Ocean on the east. The population of the twelve counties entirely on the peninsula totals 818,014 people as of the 2020 census. In older sources, the peninsula between Delaware Bay and Chesapeake Bay was variously known as the Delaware and Chesapeake Peninsula or simply the Chesapeake Peninsula . The toponym Delmarva

10165-516: The state built three reservoirs on Juniata tributaries to keep the upper parts of the canal filled with water. A canal section of 1.5 miles (2.4 km) has been restored near Locust Campground, 3 miles (4.8 km) west of Lewistown. At the western end of the canal, the Hollidaysburg Canal Basin Park has preserved two canal basins and a connecting lock; a museum at the park illustrates how canal boats transferred between

10272-559: The state needed to hire Josiah White to fix it before it became fully usable in 1834. Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company would operate the Canal into the 1930s, and controlled its resources and those rights attained on the Lehigh until the 1960s when they reverted or conveyed back to the state. Hence the Canal system was envisioned and built at the urging of New Jersey and Pennsylvanian businessmen, especially Philadelphia's bearing witness to

10379-462: The state of Delaware and parts of the Eastern Shore of Maryland and Eastern Shore of Virginia . The peninsula is 170 miles (274 km) long. In width, it ranges from 70 miles (113 km) near its center, to 12 miles (19 km) at the isthmus on its northern edge, to less near its southern tip of Cape Charles . It is bordered by the Chesapeake Bay on the west, Pocomoke Sound on

10486-513: The tender and one freight car, up the grade at 15 miles (24 km) per hour. So remarkable was this accomplishment that reports in engineering journals doubted its occurrence. Nine days later, the engine repeated the feat in a more formal trial with an even greater load. In 1850, the state bought the West Philadelphia Railroad, which had been incorporated in 1835 to bypass the Belmont Plane and failed after completing only

10593-741: The war, the British government made several agreements, primarily with the Iroquois , which resulted in official policies to curb the expansion of settlement in the colonial West (today's Midwest). This was one of many British policies that created support for the American Revolution along the American frontier for those hoping to emigrate into the Ohio Country , and also for East Coast seaboard populations that were blooming in

10700-578: The water link between Havre de Grace and Philadelphia to 74 miles (119 km). Since this was only 20 miles (32 km) further by water than from Havre de Grace to Baltimore, the Susquehanna and Tidewater Canal stood to benefit both cities. In 1835, the Susquehanna Canal Company of Pennsylvania joined the Tidewater Canal Company of Maryland in privately funding and building the canal. Construction began in 1836 and

10807-531: The western basin at Johnstown. At its summit, the railroad reached an elevation of 2,322 feet (708 m) above sea level . In 1826, the state legislature authorized the first segment of the Western Division Canal, from Pittsburgh up the Allegheny River to its confluence with the Kiskiminetas River at Freeport . Pittsburgh residents favored a route that would follow the south bank of

10914-468: The western suburbs of Philadelphia, is still known as the Main Line . The Columbia Plane, which lowered railway cars down to the Eastern Division Canal along the Susquehanna River , was bypassed in 1840 by a new track alignment. The Pennsylvania Canal's Eastern Division, which opened in 1833, ran 43 miles (69 km) along the east side of the Susquehanna River between Columbia and Duncan's Island at

11021-423: The women and children tended while the men hunted and fished. In the fall they harvested crops, storing food in baskets or underground pits. During the harsh winter, whole communities would move to hunting areas, seeking the deer, rabbit and other game that kept them alive until the spring fishing season. When the farmland around their villages became less productive – the inhabitants did not practice crop rotation –

11128-430: Was already re-doing the upper four locks on the Lehigh Canal to support a steam powered tug pulling boats over 120 feet (37 m) built to support two way traffic with full locks. By 1825 the volume of coal coming down the Lehigh & Delaware to Philadelphia was becoming huge and problematic — LC&N was rapidly over logging the forests feeding the Lehigh to build boats for the one way trip. The extra expenses of

11235-538: Was completed in 1834 and was sold to the Pennsylvania Railroad on June 25, 1857, for $ 7,500,000. Within a year, the PRR replaced the Philadelphia-Pittsburgh route with an entirely rail-based system. The Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad began in Philadelphia at Broad and Vine Streets, ran north on Broad and west on Pennsylvania Avenue, a segment later taken over and submerged and tunneled over by

11342-609: Was created while the canal was in use. The assumed final page (68) which would be a survey of the final lock in Havre de Grace, MD is missing. An original copy (undated) of the survey is located in the Archives of Safe Harbor Dam as of 2022 (Brookfield Renewable). That document is also missing the final page 68. The survey was completed in 1875 after the January 1, 1872 lease of the Canal to the Reading Railroad. Support for

11449-416: Was finished in 1840. Despite toll collections rising from $ 42,000 in its first year to about four times that amount by 1850, the canal company faced money problems. Construction costs had totaled $ 3.5 million; with only $ 1.25 million in start-up capital, the company had borrowed heavily, and it struggled to pay its debts. After 1855, toll revenue fell; flood damage, railroad competition, and the disruptions of

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