Delaware and Hudson Canal

Delaware and Hudson Canal (del'uwâr, –wur) [key], former waterway, 108 mi (174 km) long, between Honesdale, Pa., and Eddyville, N.Y. (now in Kingston), linking the Delaware and Hudson rivers; built 1825–28 to move coal from the Pennsylvania fields to New York markets. A gravity railroad, completed across the Moosic Mts. in 1829, connected the coalfields at Carbondale, Pa., with Honesdale. Four suspension bridge aqueducts were later constructed along the canal, including one over the Delaware that still survives. The canal operated profitably until the 1860s; increasing railroad competition caused its abandonment in 1898.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

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