Shot over a period of 25 years by one cameraman Roy Creveling, “Paradise Ditch” shows the Delaware Division of the Pennsylvania Canal. After the canal was no longer useful as a means of transportation, 60 miles of it was preserved as a park. The film contains rare and historic footage of the infrastructure of the canal including a canal boat graveyard (4:30), bridges built for mule teams to travel across, locks, and more. The film also has historic footage of the canal in operation with a mule team shown at 6:20, pulling a canal boat.
The Delaware Division of the Pennsylvania Canal, more commonly called the Delaware Canal, runs parallel to the Delaware River from the Lehigh River at Easton (home of The National Canal Museum and terminal end of the Lehigh Canal) south to Bristol, as part of the solution to the United States’ first energy crisis. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania built the Delaware canal to feed anthracite stone coal to energy-hungry Philadelphia as part of its transportation infrastructure building plan known as the Main Line of Public Works—a legislative initiative creating a collection of self-reinforcing internal improvements to commercial transportation capabilities.
The Delaware Canal, like the Lehigh Canal, was primarily meant to carry the “fuel of choice” of the day, anthracite coal, and other bulk goods such as gravel and limestone, cement, and lumber—from northeastern Pennsylvania to Philadelphia. In reverse flow, the two canals carried manufactured goods, iron products and (a few decades later) steel products to the northeastern cities. The Delaware and Lehigh Canals also connected from Easton by ferry services across the Delaware River to New Jersey and the Delaware and Raritan Canal, connecting industrial loads to New York City.
First opened in 1832, the Delaware Canal still has most of its original locks, aqueducts, and overflows.[3] Although the two canals reached their peak shipping in 1855, after which coal transport down the Lehigh corridor was taken up increasingly by railroads, the canals stayed in operation until the Great Depression in the early 1930s. According to the National Park Service, it was the “longest-lived canal in the country”.
It was competition from the railroad that led to a decline in barge traffic and the demise of the canal. By the 1920s, anthracite coal was waning as a source of fuel. The last commercial through traffic traveled the canal in October 1931 and the bankrupt Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company sold the canal back to the state for a nominal fee.
In 1933, a private group called The Delaware Valley Protective Association[5] (DVPA) was founded to protect the canal as a historic asset. The DVPA persuaded the state to resume maintenance of the canal in 1940, when its towpath became Theodore Roosevelt State Park. The berms were restored and the canal was refilled with water.
Through the 1940s and 1950s, the canal was left mostly untouched. In the early 1960s, however, Pennsylvania officials explored plans to pave over the canal and create a road for cars. Local residents fought for the canal’s protection. In 1964, Bucks County historian and DVPA member Willis M. Rivinus wrote the first Guide to the Delaware Canal to call attention to the canal’s value.
In 1976, it was designated a National Historic Landmark, helping to guarantee its preservation. The towpath itself was named an official National Recreation Trail.
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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
