Delaware and Atlantic Canal

[MarkBNJ]

I was surfing through the map collection at the LoC today when I came upon this map of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, circa 1839 or so. What caught my eye was a solid line across southern NJ from a point on the Delaware river north of Mt. Holly to the shore at Long Beach. I thought it must be a railroad until I zoomed in and saw it labelled as the "Delaware and Atlantic Canal."

Unfortunately they are having a system problem and I can't get a link. Will update this when I can. If you search "All online map collections" for the words "New Jersey" you'll see the 1839 map at the top of the results list.

[edit, here's the link]:
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?gmd:1:./temp/~ammem_jNzP::

Anyway, I haven't been able to find out anything about this through quick searches of other sources. I'm fairly certain it never existed, but I am intrigued as to how it ended up on an official government map. Anyone know more about this? If it had existed it would have been much longer than the D&R or even the Morris as far as I can see.

[edit] The more I think about this the sillier it sounds. Why would anyone even contemplate a canal from the Delaware north of Philly southeastward to the shore when the river goes essentially the same place?

 

[Jerseyman]

Don't Believe Everything You Read...

Mark:

This is a typical error for a cartographer to make. Don't get me wrong, there were numerous schemes to construct canals across and through New Jersey, but this is not one of them! A group of entrepreneurs proposed constructing an extension of the Delaware & Atlantic Railroad, forerunner of the Columbus, Kinkora & Springfield Railroad from [New] Lisbon to the coast, where they would build a deepwater port for shipping. The Panic of 1837 killed the project, but the line continued transporting cordwood between its eastern terminus and a wharf at Brown's Point, near Kinkora, on the Delaware River into the 1840s. This horse-powered railroad also offer transportation to anyone seeking the healthy aspects of the Pines or those wishing to attend one of the numerous dance halls in the Pine Barrens, where they could "cut loose" without anyone they know seeing them doing so.

I hope to write-up the full history of this line, also known as the Kinkora Branch, for Ben's front page sometime this spring, but my current workload prevents me from even considering it at the moment.

Best regards,
Jerseyman

 

[MarkBNJ]

Seems like this archival article from the NYT reflects that desire to shorten the path to the Atlantic from Philly, and I guess my earlier disdain for the notion sort of shortchanged the costs of rounding Cape May. However this piece is nearly 40 years younger than the map I linked. I'm still looking for something contemporary that references the scheme.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9902E4DF113BE533A2575BC0A9669D94619ED7CF

I can see the cartographer being in error about the existence of the canal, but something must have prompted him to include it. Perhaps he was paid by its advocates.

 

[Jerseyman]

Mark:

If the Burr map dates to 1839, the survey work and research conducted to compile the map occurred over the previous two or three years, so the project was likely still alive. Since neither the state nor the projectors revoked or relinquished the charter (respectively), the proposed route remained known as an "active" project for some time, particularly since the rest of the line, from Kinkora to New Lisbon, still continued to operate. I have ten file folders of research on this rail line, including a copy of the prospectus published for extending the line from New Lisbon to the coast at Poplar Point after passing through the hamlet of Manahawkin, so I can assure you of the intentions of its original projectors. If you are seeking some specific newspaper citations and secondary source citations, just drop me a PM.

Nineteenth-century cartographers and cartographic publishers sought to maximize the number of "internal improvements" they printed on their products, as it reflected on the intense nationalism that then swept the country. Most citizens took great pride in the development of the country's infrastructure, even if a railroad or canal was only in the proposal phase, and the publishers sought to capitalize on this pride and sell more maps!

Best regards,
Jerseyman

 

[Teegate]

Here is the link.

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?gmd:1:./temp/~ammem_fZrS::@@@mdb=gmd,klpmap,ww2map

And if you don't want to go there here is a quick view.

Guy

 

[GermanG]

When I became interested in railroad history I was amazed at how many false starts there were with new lines. For every one built it seemed like another half dozen were planned but not started or completed. The early chapters of a detailed book like The Trail of the Blue Comet will give many examples of this. I've seen many of these unbuilt roads or extensions on old maps.

 

[Jerseyman]

When I became interested in railroad history I was amazed at how many false starts there were with new lines. For every one built it seemed like another half dozen were planned but not started or completed. The early chapters of a detailed book like The Trail of the Blue Comet will give many examples of this. I've seen many of these unbuilt roads or extensions on old maps.

German:

Yes, The Trail of Blue Comet contains good information on the false starts and the proposed-but-never-built lines. But, then again, it had better, considering the amount of work that went into that book.

Another good source containing a great map that depicts those many projected routes is John Brinckmann's The Tuckerton Railroad. If you possess these two works, then you have covered the railroad history of the Pines very well.

Best regards,
Jerseyman

 

[Jerseyman]

Thanks, Guy, for posting the map detail. It allows people to see what we are discussing!!

Best regards,
Jerseyman

 

[MarkBNJ]

Thanks for the insights, Jerseyman. I misread your original reply. So the cartographic error was in labelling it a canal rather than a railroad? I find it interesting that the 1880 NYT piece talks about what sounds like the same route, but for a canal. If there were already parts of a railroad on that right of way, I wonder at the sense of trying to make a canal. Why not just do as you said they intended, and ship to a port on the shore via rail? The order seems backwards: canals were interesting before railroads, not afterward.

 

[Ben Ruset]

Yeah that canal seems to look like the Kinkora RR.

 

[Jerseyman]

Thanks for the insights, Jerseyman. I misread your original reply. So the cartographic error was in labelling it a canal rather than a railroad? I find it interesting that the 1880 NYT piece talks about what sounds like the same route, but for a canal. If there were already parts of a railroad on that right of way, I wonder at the sense of trying to make a canal. Why not just do as you said they intended, and ship to a port on the shore via rail? The order seems backwards: canals were interesting before railroads, not afterward.

Yes, the cartographer did mislabel the route as a canal rather than a railroad. As I indicated in my first response, there were many plans "floated" for canals across and through New Jersey. The need to accommodate commerce moving between New England, New York, Philadelphia, and points south drove all of these plans. In the early 1850s, a group of investors projected and incorporated a plan to develop a deepwater port at Florence, New Jersey, on the Delaware River, and a similar deepwater port in Keyport, New Jersey with a private plank road constructed in between those two points as a route to move freight between New York City and Philadelphia. The financial uncertainties of the 1850s brought an end to the project, but this plan is emblematic of the desire to move commerce between north and south. Even into the twentieth century, some port officials promoted a plan to covert the Delaware & Raritan Canal into a ship canal, similar to the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal between the Delaware River and the Chesapeake Bay, which the federal government converted in 1914, removing all of the small canal locks and transforming the artificial waterway into a single-level route. Tonnage moved on this canal increases every year because it provides shipping with a crucial shortcut!

Without a doubt, you must consider the cost of moving ships down the coast, around Cape May and up the Delaware River as part of any shipping project. Today, the fuel and labor costs involved in bringing ships up the river are very high, which is why shipping tonnage is way down on the Delaware over what it was in the mid-twentieth century and also why most of Philadelphia's old piers have become condos and recreational centers.

Best regards,
Jerseyman

 

[Jerseyman]

Yeah that canal seems to look like the Kinkora RR.

Without a doubt, Ben, without a doubt!

Best regards,
Jerseyman

 

[Ben Ruset]

Bringing freight up a plank road to Keyport would have been rough without any sort of powered locomotion. Aren't the Highlands the highest point on the East Coast?

 

[Jerseyman]

Bringing freight up a plank road to Keyport would have been rough without any sort of powered locomotion. Aren't the Highlands the highest point on the East Coast?

Ben:

Yes, the Highlands are the highest point on the East Coast, but Keyport is west of there along Raritan Bay. The highest benchmark in Keyport appears to be 25 feet above the sea-level datum and it slopes down from there to the bay. I'm sure the organizers consulted a civil engineer in planning the route of the plank road to avoid steep grades. As far as I know, the planned motive power consisted of fast horses and, possibly, oxen.

Best regards,
Jerseyman

 

[Jerseyman]

Folks:

For those of you who do not own a copy of John Brinckmann's book on the Tuckerton Railroad, here is the map I referred to in my previous message:

Enjoy!

Best regards,
Jerseyman

 

[whitingrider]

Jerseyman, Thanks that map is awesome!
Tom

 

[Teegate]

Thanks Jerseyman! It looks like the pines are well covered.

Guy

 

[Jerseyman]

My distinct pleasure, gentlemen!

Best regards,
Jerseyman

 

[MarkBNJ]

Thanks for that, Jerseyman. You can clearly see the proposed route of the D&A.

The whole thing still strikes me as a little off. How much of the Kinkora line was built? Are we discussing an occasion in U.S. history when someone seriously proposed replacing a railroad with a canal?

 

[Jerseyman]

Thanks for that, Jerseyman. You can clearly see the proposed route of the D&A.

The whole thing still strikes me as a little off. How much of the Kinkora line was built? Are we discussing an occasion in U.S. history when someone seriously proposed replacing a railroad with a canal?

Mark:

As I stated in my previous post, the so-called Kinkora Branch, a.k.a. the Delaware & Atlantic Railroad, as originally constructed, extended from Browns Point, Kinkora--located along the Delaware River where Roebling stands today--to New Lisbon, Pemberton Township. When the Columbus, Kinkora & Springfield Railroad built its route during the late 1860s, the state legislature granted the company the right to build its tracks on as much of the old Delaware & Atlantic Railroad right-of-way as it deemed necessary. When the Pennsylvania Railroad consummated its lease the Camden & Amboy and all of its subsidiaries for 999 years in 1871, the PRR also gained control of the CK&S line. I know of no proposals, serious or otherwise, that would have usurped the route and right-of-way of the CK&S.

Best regards,
Jerseyman