In the early 1800’s, canals became an alternative transportation route to the rut-ridden, mud-mired highways. New Jersey’s Morris Canal was different from all the other canals. Unique, this canal defied the terrain, literally climbing hills and mountains by way of locks and inclined planes, as it challenged what seemed like an insurmountable elevation, a total of 1,674 feet of elevation change. The route contained 23 lift locks and 23 inclined planes; 7 of each were in Warren County.
George P. Macculloch, a businessman from Morristown, envisioned an artificial waterway
stretching across northern New Jersey as a means of bringing Pennsylvania coal
to the fuel starved furnaces of the East and distributing raw materials to the
industrialized areas of the state. The Morris Canal was chartered on December
31, 1824 “to form an artificial navigation between the Passaic and Delaware
Rivers”.
In 1831, the Morris Canal was opened to through traffic from Phillipsburg to
Newark. By 1836 it reached Jersey City for a total of 102 miles. Lake Hopatcong
was the main source of water and it was near the summit of the canal.
The technology used on the Morris Canal was simple but innovative. Flat-bottomed
canal boats were steered with a tiller while the boat was pulled by two mules
guided by a young mule driver who walked alongside the mules. The boats
traveled through locks and over inclined planes. It was in the powerhouse that the water-powered turbine was set into motion to raise or
lower cradled boats on the inclined planes by means of a cable. This operation
was unique to the Morris Canal.
With the advent of the faster, more efficient railroads, business on the canal
declined. By 1924, despite all efforts, the canal was abandoned, drained, and
all but forgotten.
(Warren
County Morris Canal Greenway Pamphlet)