Dug by hand mostly by Irish immigrants, the 66-mile Delaware and Raritan Canal was completed in 1834. Seventy-five feet wide and eight feet deep, it originally had 14 locks to raise and lower boat traffic. It operated as an inland waterway between the Delaware and Raritan rivers, primarily transporting Pennsylvania coal to New York by mule-drawn canalboats. Its busiest years came in the decade following the Civil War, when it became one of America’s most important canals. By 1843 mules were supplemented by steam-powered boats, and the canal was used by a wide variety of commercial, pleasure, and naval vessels. Many locks, spillways, tender’s houses, and other nineteenth-century structures remain intact and in use, and the entire canal is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Along its scenic route, it also offers recreation and natural habitat for plants and wildlife, with opportunities for canoeing, fishing, cycling, walking, and horseback riding. After 1932 it no longer served as a through route for vessels, and its water instead became an increasingly important resource for much of central New Jersey.
