The Morris Canal was an engineering marvel whose system of 23 lift locks and 23 inclined planes enabled it to overcome more elevation change than any other transportation canal ever built. Its famous inclined planes were short, water powered marine railways that pulled canal boats up or let them down hillsides, while locks operated like water elevators to handle smaller changes in elevation, and mules pulled the boats across the state in five days. Crucial to the economy and development of northern New Jersey from its construction until after the Civil War, the canal ran from Phillipsburg to Jersey City, linking the anthracite coal fields of northern Pennsylvania with northern New Jersey’s iron industry, major industrial cities, and New York area markets. Open from 1831 to 1924, it carried anthracite coal, iron ore, timber, limestone, and agricultural products, and overcame 1,674 feet of elevation change, more than any other transportation canal in the world.
