Leiper Canal
Leiper Canal | |
---|---|
Specifications | |
Locks | 3 |
Status | Historic, abandoned |
History | |
Original owner | George Leiper |
Date completed | 1829 |
Date closed | 1852 |
Geography | |
Start point | Leiper stone quarry near Springfield |
End point | Delaware River at Eddystone |
Connects to | Delaware River |
Early in the 19th century, the Leiper Canal built in 1828–29 during the middle of the
Early days
Previously, a horse-drawn tramway, the Leiper Railroad, carried stone from the quarry for 18 years before the opening of the canal.[2] The tramway was built by Leiper's father, Thomas Leiper, whose request to build a canal in 1791 was denied by the Pennsylvania Legislature. However, the Legislature of 1824 were of a different mind, and were unbiased by reports of failed attempts to improve the Schuylkill River (a series of failures, back to 1764) as they were debating parts of the Main Line of Public Works omnibus transportation package of bills, and the project, once ranked a crackpot idea, was in 1824 simply stylish.
Changing times
As it had evinced enthusiasms for toll roads connecting the far off frontier settlements to the east, or to better connect parts of the old east itself, between 1790 and 1820, as the 1820s progressed, the whole nation had entered a period of frenzied canal building spurred on by the successful effects of the commerce on the
The Leiper Canal was one of several privately funded canals such as the
Configuration
Crum Creek's mouth is located at 39°51′28″N 75°19′14″W / 39.85778°N 75.32056°W.[4]—and perhaps uniquely ironic in history, was in turn replaced by the same railroad in 1852 when it was refurbished and reopened with new superior and now mature railroad technology.[5]
The system, which had three
Recognition
The Thomas Leiper Estate was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970.[7] The Thomas Leiper House has been turned into a public museum in the well-to-do neighborhood of Wallingford.[8]
See also
Footnotes
- ^ This is the distance from the Thomas Leiper House, 521 Avondale Road in Wallingford, Pennsylvania, to the confluence of Crum Creek with the Delaware River.
- ^ McMasters, John Bach (1920). A History of the People of the United States from the Revolution to the Civil War. New York and London: D. Appleton and Company. p. 494.
- ^ "Nether Providence Through the Years". Nether Providence Historical Society. Retrieved November 11, 2007.
- ^ "Crum Creek". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey. August 2, 1979. Retrieved March 20, 2009.
- ^ The shortline branch became part of the B&O railroad in the 1880s. See Cites and full story in the Leiper Railroad.
- ISBN 0-933788-37-1.
- ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
- ^ "Delaware County History: Historic Sites". delcohistory.org. Retrieved January 20, 2008.