Schuykill River History

The Schuylkill Navigation: A photographic History

First Pictorial History of the Schuylkill Navigation System

The Schuylkill Navigation: A Photographic History contains over 240 of the best photographs of the Schuylkill “ Canal ” [each with a detailed caption that is a mini-history lesson], a concise history of the Schuylkill Navigation Company, excerpts from the John Bowman memoirs, detailed maps of the route, and an extensive bibliography for those wishing to do more research.

The book is a visual feast, a tribute to the professional amateur photographers who recorded the history of this important waterway–definitely, a must acquisition for every canal, railroad, Pennsylvania, Schuylkill River and regional history buff.

All rights reserved; excerpts reproduced with permission from the author. No part of these excerpts can be used with written permission from the publisher or author. Published by: CANAL CAPTAIN ‘S PRESS, 103 Dogwood Lane, Berkeley Heights, NJ 07922

The History of West Norriton Township, officially established in January 1730, is a very interesting book that is available at the West Norriton Township Office for $5.00.

( and BOTTOM: LEFT) A 3.13 mile pool separated the Vincent and Oak canals. The canal towpath switched from the Chester County side of the Schuylkill River to the Montgomery County side in the horseshoe curve just north of Phoenixville and Monte Clare by utilizing a mule passage on the outside of the covered bridge (known on SNC maps as the Ferry No.4 Bridge) on Black Rock Road, fonnerly known as the State Road and now Route 113.

( RIGHT/TOP) The toll collectors house was located on the Montgomery County side of the bridge.

( RIGHT/BOTTOM) The overgrown towpath indicates that this idyllic scene occurred during the SNC’s declining years. [NOTE: The Phoenixville Canal, a branch canal whose only lock was located adjacent to Dam 26 at Black Rock, was built on the Chester County side primarily to serve the needs of the Phoenix Iron Company’s cotton mills located near Dayton and Nuge~t Streets in Phoenixville and the main foundry located at the junction of the French Creek with the Schuylkill River].

Dam 26, with a height of 8.4 feet and an overfall of 376 feet, provided the water for the Oaks Canal, named for Thomas Oakes, one of the engineer-builders of the Schuylkill Navigation. The original 1822 dam and lock were replaced in 1840. In the 1960s the Philadelphia Electric Company, the dam’s present owners, over-capped and sheet-piled it.

Lock 60, a guard lock with a lift of 1.35 feet, is located approximately one half mile south of the dam breast. The 90′ x 15′ chamber, now serving as the bypass flume, was built in 1839; the 11 0′ x 18′ chamber was completed in 1846

In 1903 the Reading Traction Company built a hydro-electric generating station, containing three turbines capable of generating over 2,000 kilowatts, at Lock 60 to provide electric power for the Norristown to Reading trolley line.

Lock 60 served as the home port for the DOLPHIN and its work crew during the 20th century.

This 1930s photograph shows the DOLPHIN, the dredge, a scow for hauling timber, and the maintenance scow at Lock 60. The locktender’s house was built during the 1836 enlargement. The Oaks Canal was 3.44 miles in length. The Pennsylvania Railroad Company’s high stone-arched bridge (1920) and the Route 29 Phoenixville/Mont Clare reinforced concrete-arched bridge (1917) are encountered before coming to Mont Clare, about a half mile south of Lock 60.

About a mile below Mont Clare is Port Providence, originally called Lumberville after a lumber mill located near Long Ford. The town included a boat building yard, taverns, mule stables, and a general store. The photograph shows one of the many overflows used to maintain the proper level of water in the canal.

In 1827 the Oaks Canal was known as the French Creek Canal. Alspach’s Schuylkill Canal Navigator noted: “observe to keep a little nearer to the towpath than the middle of the canal, in some places, as there are stumps in some parts of this canal.” Lock 61, Brower’s, with a lift of 16.77 feet was the outlet lock for the Oaks Canal. The locktender’s house was built in the mid-1830s. The canal was J filled during a 1950s de-silting project of the Schuylkill River. The Perkiomen bridge of the Reading Railroad crossed the river south of the lock.

Below Lock 61 the canal towpath crossed from the north to the south side of the Schuylkill River, utilizing a ferry just below the Reading Railroad’s Perkiomen Branch bridge. A 1.39 mile pool separated Lock 61 from Dam 27, Pawling’s, and Lock 62. Dam 27 had a height of 4.3 feet and an overfall of 329 feet. Lock 62, Pauling’s Lock, had a lift of 4.30 feet. The Perkiomen Junction Station bridge was about a quarter mile upstream from Dam 27 and Lock 26. The pool between Dam 27 and Dam 28 was 3.95 miles. The towpath passed through the village of Valley Forge, site of grist, paper, and woolen mills, and Port Kennedy, home of the Montgomery Iron Company.

Two masted schooners traveled to Port Kennedy to load lime. Their masts, hinged at the base to enable them to drop to the deck to clear the canal bridges, also served as derricks for loading cargo.

Dam 28, Catfish Dam, had a height of 4.83 feet and an overfall of 495.5 feet. Lock 63, Catfish Lock, had a lift of 4.83 feet.

( LEFT) Flash boards could be attached to the dam to gain extra height. ( RIGHT) The Alexis Club was located on the north abutment of Catfish Dam. The club was abandoned in’ the 1930s and dismantled sometime between 1945 and 1950 when the river was dredged.

After leaving Dam 28, boats passed Port Indian on the north side of the river and skirted the south side of Barbadoes Island heading for Dam 29 which spanned the river between Norristown and Bridgeport.

Dam 29 had a height of 9 feet and an overfall of 898 feet. Although the canal below Lock 64, a guard lock with no lift, is really located in Bridgeport, it was officially known as the Norristown Canal.

When the pool above Dam 29 froze in the winter, a horse pulled scrapper was used to make the surface acceptable for ice skating.

Around 1900 the Eureka Knitting Mill was located near the Norristown abutment of the dam.

In 1924 the DeKalb Street covered bridge between Norristown and Bridgeport was destroyed by fire and eventually replaced with the current concrete bridge.

A basin and turn around area was located just below the lock.

On August 12, 1912, the Philadelphia & Western Railway, running from 69th Street to Strafford, completed its bridge over the Schuylkill River between Bridgeport and Norristown as part of their branch from Villanova Junction to Norristown. On December 12, 1912, the Lehigh Valley Transit Company’s high speed, Liberty Bell interurban 800 series passenger cars began using the route; in March 1913 freight runs were initiated.

Three freight motors, C-19, C-15, and C-17, built by the Jewett Car Company, are enroute south on September 23, 1950. Lehigh Valley Transit passenger cars terminated at the Norristown P & W station effective September 24, 1949, but freight service was permitted to continue to 72nd Street (the freight station) until the abandonment of the Liberty Bell Route on September 6, 1951.

The lock tender’s shed and the bridge over the upper end of Lock 64 are visible at the extreme right of this May 22, 1894, photograph taken from the third story of Evan’s Hotel. The Dager & Company ‘ s paper mill was located at the lock basin.

In 1821 Thomas Hewett successfully operated his sixty-five foot steamboat, NORRISTOWN , (TOP photo) on the Schuylkill Navigation between Philadelphia and Norristown . The service was short lived because the wake from the steamboat damaged the canal banks. In the 1890s a paddle wheel steamboat, docked at the Lock 64 basin, was rented for excursions along the river.

An overflow for the canal was located just south of the metal lattice bridge over the canal on DeKaIb Street .

J. B. Horn ‘ s Montgomery County Packing, Curing, and Smoking meat processing factory, Fourth and Green Streets, was located just below the DeKalb Street Bridge . It later became A. H. March’s Packing Company. A flour mill was located across the canal on the opposite bank.

March’s was established in 1892 and moved to Lederach in 1934. Photographer William H. Ortlip recorded this explosion at March’s.

The building on the right, opposite the meat factory, is the Jones & Wright, formerly Jones & Stokes, flour mill.

Minerva Mills, founded by James Lee in 1846, were located at Fourth and Farley. The company eventually became Lees Carpet, operating many plants in Bridgeport until the late 1950s.

Lock 65, the Norristown Canal outlet lock, had a lift of 11.49 feet and was known as the Swedesford Lock. In the background is the ”Penny Bridge,” so named because walkers had to pay a penny to cross it. It was located at Ford and Front Streets.

In the pool above Dam 30, the towpath changed from the south to the north bank of the river. The mules crossed the river on a rope ferry located near Old Swedes Church in Swedesburg. The area around Swedesburg contained several limestone quarries, the principal one being the McCoy quarry–eventually operated by Bethlehem Mines Company.

The Alan Wood Iron and Steel Company began at Ivy Rock, an outgrowth of Conshohocken’s early iron industry. In 1911 it merged with a firm owned by Richard Heckscher on the Upper Merion Township side of the river. Alan Wood ceased operations in 1977.

Dam 30, Plymouth Dam, had a height of 7.75 feet and an overfall of 527 feet.

Ariel Cooley of Springfield, Massachusetts, built the first dam across the Schuylkill River at Conshohocken in 1819. The dam was not a high one, the river was shallow and the bed of solid rock. The dam was built without the aid of coffer-dams, had no stone filling or iron bolts in it. The clay and stone backing on top of the sheathing, as well as the weight of the water, held it is place. In 1858 it was replaced. The construction details for this 1858 dam, still in place, are in Edwin F. Smith’s DamBuilding in Navigable and Other Streams.

Lock 66, the entrance lock to the Plymouth Canal, was a guard lock and had no lift. The lock was located at the northern end of Conshohocken, laid out on land owned by the Schuylkill Navigation Company. Historically, the area was known as Matson’s Ford. Just down canal from Lock 66 the Plymouth Creek passed under the canal. The Plymouth Iron Works dominated the surrounding area.