Delaware
Chesapeake and Delaware Canal (C & D Canal)
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Chesapeake City Bridge
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Bethel Bridge Lighthouse Replica
Information
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Bethel Bridge Lighthouse Replica
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At the middle distance of the
canal
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Summit Bridge
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Vertical Lift Conrail Bridge
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New St. Georges Bridge with Old
St. Georges in background
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Cargo ship
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The journey to this canal began with a trip to the Perryville, MD library. Libraries are a great source of local information about upcoming events. One of the pieces we picked up was a series of music events on Sunday evenings at South Chesapeake City, MD. We decided to go over on the next Sunday evening and after finding the park we discovered that it is right on the bank of the Chesapeake-Delaware Canal. Since we had gone to listen to music, we did not take our camera. There was a lot of private boat traffic and while watching them I said to Lois, "Look at that huge ship coming down the canal". We went down closer to the edge of the canal while this huge ship came by- some type of car carrier. We had seen a map of the area that showed a canal lock so we asked one of the locals and he said the locks were closed in the early 20's. This canal connects the Deleware river to the east and Chesapeake Bay on the west.
On the way home Lois was looking at the map and found a state park in Delaware that looked to be right on the canal, so we planned a trip over there hoping to see a another big ship. We found the park and the canal the next day and were able to get right down next to the canal and followed a road that used to be a path where the barges and ships were pulled through the canal in the early days. The map showed a museum back over in the town where we were listening to music so we took the back roads back that way. It is beautiful countryside with many hay farms and more corn crops.
The canal was first envisioned in 1660 by Mr. Augustine Herman that could see that a waterway between Philadelpia and Baltimore would cut nearly 300 miles off the current trip. It is amazing that just 40 years after the Pilgrims landed, there was enough traffic between these two large cities for someone to be looking for quicker way to make the trip. In 1760 there were surveys of the potential routes across the land, but it would not be until 1802, nearly 200 years after Herman's idea that construction would start. Two years later it was halted because of a lack of funds; this was a private project, not government funded. In 1822 the project was reorganized with state and federal funds and construction actually began in 1824. It took 2600 men and mules 5 years to complete the canal. All of this was done manually, digging out the dirt and hauling it up the hillside was done without any mechanical equipment other than pulleys and ropes. Much of the land traversed was marshy and they had trouble with the sides of the canal sliding back into the hole. In the beginning the canal was 10 feet deep and 66 feet wide and included 4 locks; the Deleware side was about 30 feet higher than the Chesapeake side so they had to let the boats down the hill to get to Chesapeake. The first bridge across the canal carried trains and people. Now the canal has 6 large bridges to carry the traffic load.
In 1919 the Corps of Engineers bought the canal and have been responsible for the many current improvements. The canal has been widened to 450 feet and 35 feet deep. It now carries ships up to 750 feet in length. With the deepening of the canal the locks were no longer needed.
It is currently estimated that 40% of the traffic that comes into Baltimore harbor, comes through the canal. The canal does cut about 300 miles off the trip between Philadelphia and Baltmore and saves hundreds of thousands of dollars each year in fuel costs. I sure Mr. Herman looks down and is pleased with what they did with his dream .