Lambertville Outlet Lock

This outlet lock was built in 1848 to let canal boats pass between the Delaware and Raritan Canal and Pennsylvania's Delaware Canal. Boats loaded with coal from the Lehigh Valley came down the Lehigh Canal to Easton, Pennsylvania, transferred to the Delaware Canal, traveled to New Hope, crossed the Delaware River attached to a cable strung across the river, and entered the D&R Canal through this lock. From there, most continued through Trenton to New Brunswick and then into New York Harbor. Abandoned in 1912, the structure was in constant use during the two decades after the Civil War, when canal traffic peaked in the eastern United States. In 1868, the Lambertville Beacon reported that an average of 31 boats per day crossed the Delaware River by this cable. The mules were led up to the New Hope/Lambertville Bridge, taken across the river, and brought through town to be reconnected to the boats. Boats were attached to the cable at an angle to the current, with the bow upstream of the stern, so the force of the current would propel them across, and the angle was adjusted to match the strength of the current. The Belvidere-Delaware Railroad crossed the outlet lock on a fixed bridge high enough for boats to pass under. A dam downstream was built to provide power to the Union Paper Mill in New Hope, supply water to the lower half of the Delaware Canal, and create a pool in the Delaware River to aid the crossing. The widening of the D&R Canal here gave boats room to make the 90 degree turn into the outlet lock and to wait their turn to cross.

Lambertville, New Jersey · United States