The Delaware and Raritan Canal has meandered across Central New Jersey for more than 170 years, and was one of America’s most successful towpath canals, once carrying more tonnage than the more famous Erie Canal.
Canal author and historian Linda J. Barth will tell the story of the people, bridges, locks, and aqueducts that made the canal work on Tuesday, May 21, at 7 p.m., in the latest installment of the Prallsville Mill’s Speaker Series.
The Delaware and Raritan Canal, now the centerpiece of a popular state park, transported men and supplies between New York and Philadelphia during three wars. Inventor John Holland used the canal to deliver his Holland VI submarine to Washington for its Navy trials, and luxury yachts, like J.P. Morgan’s Tarantula, cruised the waterway. Johnson & Johnson, Roebling, and Fleischmann’s Distillery all had their start along the D&R. Today, the canal provides the people of central New Jersey with both a water supply and a premier recreational facility.
A lifelong resident of the Garden State, Barth has written two books on the D&R Canal for Arcadia Publishing, and two children’s picture books: “Bridgetender’s Boy,” published by the National Canal Museum in 2005, and “Hidden New Jersey” from Charlesbridge Publishing in 2012. “A History of Inventing in New Jersey: From Thomas Edison to the Ice Cream Cone,” published by the History Press, was released in 2013. With her husband she has published “The Millstone Valley Through Time” and “Somerville Through Time.” She has also contributed to the “Encyclopedia of New Jersey,” and just completed “New Jersey Originals,” volume two of New Jersey firsts and inventions.
The Prallsville Mills complex in Stockton, N.J., is considered a significant example of early American industrial architecture that was included on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. Today, the Mill proudly features cultural and historic events for the entire community.
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