Morris Canal

In 1823, the canal company hired Ephraim Beach, who was originally an assistant engineer on the Erie Canal, as its chief engineer, to survey the routes for the Morris Canal.[12] Construction started in 1824 in Newark, with a channel 31 feet (9.4 m) wide and 4 feet (1.2 m) deep. The canal started from Upper Newark Bay, followed the Passaic River and crossed it at Little Falls, then went on to Boonton, Dover, then the southern tip of Lake Hopatcong, whereupon it went to Phillipsburg.[13]

On October 15, 1825, ground was broken at the summit level at the "Great Pond" (i.e. lake Hopatcong). By 1828, 82 of the 97 eastern sections and 43 of the 74 western sections were finished. By 1829, some sections were completed and opened for traffic, and in 1830, the 38-mile (61 km) section from Newark to Rockaway was opened.[14]

Because the locks could only handle boats of 25 long tons (25 t), that meant that through traffic from the Lehigh Canal was impossible, requiring reloading coal at Easton.[15]

Drawing of the powerhouse for the Boonton Plane (7 East).

Powerhouse which has the machinery can be seen in the middle of the photo, as well as the flume and the routing of the cables for Inclined Plane 7 West

Controls inside a powerhouse for one of the planes

The vertical movement on the Morris Canal 1,672 feet (510 m) was 18 feet per mile (3.4 m/km), in comparison with less than 1 foot per mile (19 cm/km) on the Erie Canal, and would have required a lock every 2 miles (3.2 km), which would have made the costs prohibitive.[16] James Renwick, a professor at Columbia University, devised the idea of using inclined planes to raise the boats 1,600 feet (490 m) in 90 miles (140 km), instead of using about 300 lift locks, since a lift lock of that time typically lifted about 6 feet (1.8 m).[17] In the end, Renwick used only 23 inclined planes and 23 locks.[15] Lock dimensions were originally 9 feet (2.7 m) wide and 75 feet (23 m) long[18]

Renwick's original design seems to have been to have double tracks on all inclined planes, with the descending caisson holding more water; thus, the system theoretically would not have needed external power.[19] Nevertheless, the inclined planes were built with overshot water wheels to supply power.[19]

The early planes were done by different contractors and differed greatly. In 1829, the canal company hired David Bates Douglass from West Point, who became the chief engineer of the planes. He supervised the construction of the remaining planes to be built and also altered the already built planes.[12]

The inclined planes had a set of tracks, gauge about 12+1⁄2 feet (3.8 m), running from the lower level up the incline, over the crest of the hill at the top, and down into the next level. Tracks were submerged at both ends. A large cradle, holding the boat, ran on the tracks.[20] Iron overshot waterwheels originally powered the planes.[21]

The Scotch (reaction) turbines, which later replaced the overshot water wheels, were 12+1⁄2 feet (3.8 m) feet in diameter and made of cast iron. They could pull boats up an 11% grade. The longest plane was the double-tracked Plane 9 West, which was 1,510 feet (460 m) long and lifted boats 100 feet (30 m) up (i.e. 6% grade) in 12 minutes.[18] The total weight of the boat, cargo, and cradle was about 110–125 long tons (112–127 t).[18]

The Scotch turbines produced (for example, on Plane 2 West) 235 horsepower using a 45-foot (14 m) head of water and had a discharge rate of 1,000 cubic feet (28 m³) per minute. Some turbines were also reported to develop 704 horsepower.[22] The winding drum was 12 feet (3.7 m) in diameter and had a spiral grove of 3 inches (76 mm) pitch. The rope was fastened on both ends to the drum, and there was a clutch that allowed the direction of the wheel to be reversed. The plane had two lines of steel rails, with a gauge of 12 feet 4+1⁄2 inches (3.772 m) from center of rail to center. Rails were 3+1⁄8 inches (7.9 cm) wide at top and 3+1⁄2 inches (8.9 cm) high, and weighed 76 pounds per yard (38 kg/m). The cradle had a brake, in case the load went downhill too fast. Descent was also checked by the plane-man by putting about half power through the turbine.[23] The water was fed into the turbines from below, thus relieving friction on the bearings and balancing them.

A comparison of Plane 2 West (Stanhope), which had a 72-foot (22 m) lift, with a flight of 12 locks yields the following: the plane took 5 minutes 30 seconds, and consumed 3,180 cubic feet (90 m³) of water lifting a loaded boat. Locks 95 by 11 by 6 feet (29.0 m × 3.4 m × 1.8 m), meaning 6,270 cubic feet (178 m³) of water per lock) would consume 72,240 cubic feet (2,046 m³) for 12 locks (about 23 times more water) and would take 96 minutes.[23]

The Elbląg Canal, one of Seven Wonders of Poland, used the Morris Canal's technology as inspiration for its inclined planes; for that reason, the inclined planes on that canal strongly resemble those on the Morris Canal.[23]

The Newark Eagle reported in 1830:

The machinery was set in motion under the direction of Major Douglass, the enterprising Engineer. The boat, with two hundred persons on board, rose majestically out of the water; in one minute it was upon the summit, which it passed apparently with all the ease that a ship would cross a wave of the sea. As the forward wheels of the car commenced their descent, the boat seemed gently to bow to the spectators and the town below, then glided quickly down the wooden way. In six minutes and thirty seconds it descended from the summit and re-entered the canal, thus passing a plane one thousand and forty feet long, with a descent of seventy feet, in six and one half minutes.[24]

An English visitor, Fanny Trollope, in her 1832 book Domestic Manners of the Americans, wrote of the canal:

We spent a delightful day in New Jersey, in visiting, with a most agreeable party, the inclined planes, which are used instead of locks on the Morris canal.

This is a very interesting work; it is one among a thousand which prove the people of America to be the most enterprising in the world. I was informed that this important canal, which connects the waters of the Hudson and the Delaware, is a hundred miles long, and in this distance overcomes a variation of level amounting to sixteen hundred feet. Of this, fourteen hundred are achieved by inclined planes. The planes average about sixty feet of perpendicular lift each, and are to support about forty tons. The time consumed in passing them is twelve minutes for one hundred feet of perpendicular rise. The expense is less than a third of what locks would be for surmounting the same rise. If we set about any more canals, this may be worth attending to.

This Morris canal is certainly an extraordinary work; it not only varies its level sixteen hundred feet, but at one point runs along the side of a mountain at thirty feet above the tops of the highest buildings in the town of Paterson, below; at another it crosses the falls of the Passaic in a stone aqueduct sixty feet above the water in the river. This noble work, in a great degree, owes its existence to the patriotic and scientific energy of Mr. Cadwallader Colden.[25]

In 1902, after a fatal crash between a Delaware and Lackawanna railroad train and a streetcar, the railroad grade was lowered (to the level it occupies today) and the Morris Canal had to make an electrically driven incline plane to bring boats up and over the railroad and Orange street, and then back down into the canal, with a pipe to carry the water across the break.[26]

The Pompton River aqueduct, which was the longest one at 236 feet (72 m), was just upstream of where US Route 202 crosses the river

Several aqueducts were built for the canal: the 80-foot (24 m) Little Falls Aqueduct over the Passaic River in Paterson, New Jersey, and the 236-foot (72 m) Pompton River Aqueduct,[18] as well as aqueducts over the Second and Third river[27]

The longest level was 17 miles (27 km), from Bloomfield to Lincoln Park; the second-longest, 11 miles (18 km) from Port Murray to Saxon Falls.[18]

The aqueduct over the Pohatcong Creek at the base of Inclined Plane 7 West is now used as a road bridge on Plane Hill Road in Bowerstown.[28]

On November 1, 1830, before the whole canal was finished, the eastern side of the canal between Dover and Newark was tested with several boats loaded with iron ore and iron. These went through the planes without incident.[15] On May 20, 1832, the canal was officially opened.[15] The first boat passing entirely through the canal was the Walk-on-Water,[29] followed by two coal-laden boats went from Phillipsburg all the way to Newark.[15] This initial section (not counting the Jersey City portion, which was done later) ran 98.62 miles (158.71 km) and cost $2,104,413 (equivalent to $61,687,360 in 2022).[30]

Scotch or reaction turbine taken from Inclined Plane 3 East on display at Hopatcong State Park. This turbine, running with 47 feet (14 m) head at 58 rpm, venting 90.6 second feet, gives 30% efficiency. Water goes in the bottom, and comes out the sides, relieving pressure on bearings.

Soon after opening, it became apparent that the canal had to be widened and had to be extended across to the New York Bay across Bayonne.[15] Early boats, called "flickers," could only carry 18 tons.[31] By 1840 the company had finished enlarging the locks, canal, and planes, and finished building the extension to Jersey City. Boats were divided in two, hitched with a pin, as were the trucks (cradles) on the inclined planes.[32] The enlarged locks' dimensions were now 11 feet (3.4 m) wide and 90 feet (27 m) long.[18]

The original company failed in 1841 amid banking scandals, and the canal was leased to private bidders for three years.[33] The canal company was reorganized in 1844, with a capitalization of $1 million. The canal bed was inspected, and improvements were made. First, the places where seepage occurred were lined with clay, and two feeders were dug, to Lake Hopatcong and to Pompton. The inclined planes were rebuilt with wire cabling.[32] Banking privileges were removed in 1849, leaving the company as a canal-operating business only.[33]

By 1860, the canal had been progressively enlarged to accommodate boats of 70 long tons (71 t). Traffic reached a peak in 1866, when the canal carried 889,220 long tons (903,490 t) of freight (equivalent to nearly 13,000 boatloads). Between 1848 and 1860, the original overshot water wheels that powered the inclined planes were replaced with more powerful water turbines. The locks and inclines planes were also renumbered since some had been combined or eliminated.

Boats of 79 long tons (80 t) were now 87+1⁄2 feet (26.7 m) long, 10+1⁄2 feet (3.2 m) wide, and drew 4+1⁄2 feet (1.4 m) of water.[18]

Freight figures are as follows:[34]

The Morris canal carried coal, malleable pig iron,[32] and iron ore. It also carried grain, wood, cider, vinegar, beer, whiskey, bricks, hay, hides, sugar, lumber, manure, lime,[35] and ice. Although it is said that the Morris Canal was mainly a freight canal and not a passenger canal,[32] some boats on the Morris Canal did offer "Cool summer rides accompanied by a shipment of ice".[36] Additional cargo include scrap metal, zinc, sand, clay, and farm products.[37]

Iron ore from the Ogden Mine was brought to Nolan's Point (Lake Hopatcong). In 1880 the canal transported 1,700 boatloads (about 108,000 long tons (110,000 t)) of iron ore.[18] Thereafter, competition from taconite ore in the Lake Superior region brought a decline in New Jersey bog iron.

The plane tender of Plane 11 East reported that during the operating days, boats would tie up at night up to a mile above the plane, down another mile to Lock 15 East (Lock 14 East in the old 1836 numbering), and then about a mile below Lock 14 East. They would start putting boats through starting around 4 a.m. (dawn), and go all day long until 10 p.m., often handling boatmen who had gone through that morning, unloaded in Newark, and were returning.[38]

William H. Rau, Morris Canal From Green's Bridge, c. 1895

The canal's profitability was undermined by railroads, which could deliver in five hours cargo that took four days by boat.[32]

In 1871, the canal was leased by the Lehigh Valley Railroad, which sought the valuable terminal properties at Phillipsburg and Jersey City. The railroad never realized a profit from the operation of the canal.

By the early 20th century, commercial traffic on the canal had become negligible. Two committees, in 1903 and 1912, recommended abandoning the canal.[31] The 1912 survey wrote, "...from Jersey City to Paterson, [the canal] was little more than an open sewer ... but its value beyond Paterson was of great importance, no longer as a freight transit line but as a parkway."[39] Many of the existing photographs of the working canal were shot as part of these surveys, as well as by other people who wanted photographs of the canal before its demise.[31]

In 1918, the canal company filed a lawsuit to block the construction of the Wanaque Reservoir in Passic County, asserting that the reservoir would divert water needed for the Pompton feeder. The company won the suit in 1922, but the victory was Pyrrhic; the canal was now viewed as an impediment to the development of the area's water supply. On March 1, 1923, the state of New Jersey took possession of the canal;[31] it shut it down the following year. Over the next five years, the state largely dismantled the canal: the water was drained out, banks were cut, and canal works destroyed, including needlessly dynamiting the Little Falls aqueduct.[40]

The Newark City Subway, now Newark Light Rail, was built along its route.

The North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority is developing the Morris Canal Greenway, a group of passive recreation parks and preserves along parts of the former canal route.[44][45][46][47]

Parks along the greenway include:

• Peckman Preserve
• Pompton Aquatic Park
• Wayne Township Riverside Park
• Walking path in Lincoln Park