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    "label": "Review of Pennsylvania's Delaware Division Canal: Sixty Miles of Euphoria and Frustration by Albright G. Zimmerman, 2003",
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    "title": "Review of Pennsylvania's Delaware Division Canal: Sixty Miles of Euphoria and Frustration by Albright G. Zimmerman, 2003",
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    "url": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/KAP/Zimmerman_PA_s_Delaware_Division_Book_Review_in_SIA_Vol_29_No_2_2003.tif",
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    "ocrText": "Reviews\n1 The Journal of The Society For Industrial Archeology, 29.2 I The History Cooperative\nPage 1 of 2\nVol. 29, No. 2\nJournals\nSearch\nPartners\nInformation\n2003\nPrevious\nTable of contents\nNext\nIA, The Journal of the Society for Industria Archeology\nTable of contents\n1\nSearch Builder\nReviews\nList journal issues\nHome\nPennsylvania's Delaware Division Canal: Sixty Miles of Euphoria and Frustration. By Albright G.\nZimmerman. Easton, Pa.: Canal History and Technology Press, 2002. ix+240 pp., maps, illus., tables, notes,\nPrinter-friendly\nappendix, index. $32.95 pb (ISBN 0-930973-26-7).\nformat\nIn many ways the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania undertook the most ambitious program of canal\n1\nconstruction in the U.S. in the early-19th century. The emphasis was on an east-west route to compete\nwith the Erie Canal: the Pennsylvania Main Line. Lateral canals, such as the Delaware Canal, were\nneeded if only to provide votes to sustain the entire canal program. In the first half of this book, Albright\n\"Zip\" Zimmerman tells the story of the construction and operation of the Delaware Canal, along the\nDelaware River, extending 60 miles southeast from Easton to Bristol, Pennsylvania, the most profitable\nof all the State of Pennsylvania-built canals.\nNot that the Delaware Canal did not have its problems. Influenced by William Strickland and his trip to\n2\nview the narrow canals of England, Pennsylvania's Board of Canal Commissioners decided to build the\nlocks of the Delaware Canal only half the width of the locks of its principal anthracite supplier, the\nLehigh Coal and Navigation Company (LC&N), ensuring that the larger boats on the LC&N slack-water\nnavigation couldn't be used on the Delaware Canal. Begun in 1827, the Delaware Canal was completed\nby 1830-although the section of the canal between Easton and New Hope was unable to hold water.\nJosiah White, on loan from the LCN, fixed this and other construction problems. Periodic flooding took\nits toll, as well as a general lack of water along the lower stretch, despite the large lifting wheels built by\nthe company south of New Hope.\nIn 1855 more than 700,000 tons of coal entered the canal, the peak year. In 1858, along with its other\n3\ncanals, the state sold the canal to a private company, the Delaware Division Canal Company.\nCompetition from railroads and trucking reduced tonnage carried, and by the 1920s the Delaware Canal\nwas only supplying coal to the coal yards along its course. In 1931 it entirely ceased operations.\nIn addition to this story, Zimmerman tells the second story of the Delaware Canal, the preservation of the\n4\ncanal and the development of an important scenic and recreational amenity. After the canal closed as a\ncoal hauler, there were numerous threats to its existence, including the damage done by the 1936 and\n1940 floods and the possibility that a portion might be filled in and used as a highway. In 1940 the canal\nwas transferred to the state. Following World War II the state began work to restore the canal as a state\npark, its present status.\nBoth stories are of much interest to us today. In many ways the Delaware was the quintessential 19th-\n5\ncentury American canal. Its successes and failures were mirrored by other American canals. Its\npreservation is also of interest to those in SIA engaged in heritage corridors or canal park developments.\nZimmerman is the ideal author for this work. He has studied this canal for the past four decades, has lived 6\nalong its banks, and is the past president of the Pennsylvania Canal Society as well as the author of\nnumerous articles and reports relating to the Delaware and other Pennsylvania canals. Zimmerman's\nprose is accompanied by a large number of historic photographs unavailable elsewhere. Unfortunately,\nPublished by\nwe do not have any drawings of Delaware Canal innovations such as the New Hope lift wheels. Built in\nthe Society for\n1832, repaired in 1880, these lift wheels remained in operation until 1923, providing 3,500 cubic feet of\nIndustrial Archeology\nwater per minute to the lower canal. This, however, is a minor criticism. Zimmerman, supported by the\nCanal History and Technology Press and the Friends of the Delaware Canal, has produced a solid book\nworthy of attention.\nRobert J. Kapsch\nhttp://www.historycooperative.org/journals/sia/29.2/br 4.html\n9/24/2012"
}