After the Erie Canal's successful completion in 1825 showed the importance of improved transportation, the discovery of anthracite coal in northeastern Pennsylvania and the depletion of forests in northern New Jersey led entrepreneurs in New Jersey, New York, and Philadelphia to build the Morris Canal across New Jersey's mountainous highlands to supply fuel to industries and cities in northern New Jersey and New York while carrying goods from urban centers into rural areas. From 1824 to 1924, the more than 100-mile canal ran from the Delaware River to New York Harbor and overcame a combined elevation change of 1,674 feet through a system of 23 locks and 23 inclined planes that earned it the name "Mountain Climbing Canal." Water for the canal came from an enlarged Lake Hapating reservoir, from Lake Massuatong, from Greenwood Lake, and from a seven-mile feeder canal reaching the Paquannock and Wanaque River watersheds. In the 1840's, the canal was enlarged to 40 feet wide and 5 feet deep, and its original water wheels on the inclined planes were replaced by water-powered reaction turbines. Ninety-foot canal boats pulled by mule teams and carrying up to 70 tons crossed the state in five days, with coal moving east and iron ore west. Boat basins at locks, inclined planes, and other points supported repairs, loading, and unloading, and villages including Port Murray, Port Gilden, Honkpott, and Port Warren grew with boatyards, warehouses, stores, and other services. The canal's most prosperous years came in the 1860's, then it declined as faster year-round rail service became available; it was leased to the Lehigh Valley Railroad in 1872 and finally abandoned in 1924. In Warren County, the Morris Canal Greenway follows the historic route from Phillipsburg on the Delaware River, where the canal linked to the Lehigh and Delaware Canals, to Waterloo at the county's eastern border, preserving both canal remains and their natural setting. Along South Main Street from Green's Bridge to Sawmill Street, an area rich in industrial history, early mills used water from Lopatcong Creek, and after the canal opened in 1831 it was combined with the creek from near Green's Bridge to Sawmill Street, with overflow impounded in a mill pond. The Shimer gristmill complex was later converted to a soapstone mill fed by a raceway from the canal, and its discharge water powered other mills downstream. After abandonment in 1924, flooding of Lopatcong Creek removed most canal remains there, though archaeological remains of the mill complex, mill pond, and present sewer line survive beneath the fill between South Main Street and the creek. In 1806, the New Brunswick Turnpike ran along what is now South Main Street, later followed by a trolley line carrying passengers east to and from Phillipsburg, and today the Morris Canal Trail follows the canal's original path.
