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"Beautiful Obselescence"
by digitalART2 of flickr
Attribution License
Description:
A foggy morning along the old Delaware Canal.In the early 1800's, America was growing rapidly. Its population was increasing, westward migration had begun, and business was booming. Poor roads and unnavigable rivers could no longer meet the young nation's needs. Legislators and entrepreneurs looked to canals which had been used in Asia and Europe for centuries as a way to provide better, faster, and cheaper transportation.
Inspired by the tremendous success of New York State's Erie Canal, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania began building a 1,200 mile system of canals to connect Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Lake Erie. These new transportation routes would carry the raw materials and manufactured products that would power this country's industrial revolution.
The sixty-mile-long Delaware Canal is part of this great network. Completed in 1832, it runs from Bristol to Easton, where it connects the Lehigh Canal. The primary purpose of these two waterways was to provide a way to transport anthracite coal from the northeastern Pennsylvania coal regions to the cities on the eastern seaboard. In the most productive years just prior to the Civil War, over 3,000 mule-drawn boats traveled up and down this route moving over one (1) million tons of coal a year. Smaller quantities of goods such as lumber, building stone, lime, and produce was also carried.
Life was hard for the men, women, and children who worked on the canals. A typical day started before 4 a.m. with the grooming and harnessing of the mule-team and ended at 10:00 p.m. or later when the locktenders stopped operating the locks and the boats could go no further. A mule-powered boat loaded with 80 tons of cargo traveled 30 miles or more each day.
