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From Towpath to Bike Path:
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The Lottie B at the Railroad |
In 1830, a charter was granted simultaneously creating the Delaware & Raritan Canal and the Camden & Amboy Railroad, and construction was started on both in that same year. Commodore Robert F. Stockton and his father-in-law John Potter, both prominent Princetonians, provided much of the capital for the construction of the canal. By 1834, the canal was fully completed and formally opened for navigational business. The new canal allowed freight goods to bypass the hazardous coastal waters of the Atlantic while also avoiding lengthy land expeditions.
The D & R Canal served as one of America's busiest canal routes during its one hundred year lifespan. In 1859, it broke the Erie Canal's record for tonnage carried. From Tow Path to Bike Path: Princeton and the Delaware & Raritan Canal explores the history of the D & R Canal and its relation to the development and settlement of the Princeton area. |
| The exhibition also looks at the creation of the D & R Canal: its Princeton origins and administrative center, its construction, and its technological systems. Included is background on the development of Princeton Basin, a canal settlement of over forty buildings as well as a turning basin, an area for loading and unloading boats. Although about half of the buildings of Princeton Basin were related to the operation of the canal, the other half were a result of the increased industry the canal brought to Princeton. Princeton Basin was home to dealers of lumber, coal, and groceries; a bottling plant; tradesmen such as paperhangers, shoemakers, and innkeepers; and small factories manufacturing window sashes and blinds, and bricks. The life of the boatmen, lock tenders, and their families are also presented. |
Packer's Bridge
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 Life on a canal boat
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The exhibition discusses environmental and preservation issues surrounding the canal in the recent past such as water supply use, habitat creation, recreation, and concerns about preserving open space. The D & R Canal was closed to industrial transportation in 1932, and in 1973 declared a National Historic Site. Sixty miles of the canal and the banks bordering it are now a state park that serves as a link between more than a dozen historic districts listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Historical Society of Princeton played a role in preserving the canal route as a park during this time period. Today, the park is a place where people boat, jog, bike, fish, and picnic. |
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1875 Mercer County Atlas, Everts and Stewart Major support for
FROM TOWPATH TO BIKE PATH: PRINCETON AND THE DELAWARE & RARITAN CANAL
was provided by the New Jersey Historical Commission, Department of State |
 Railroad Hotel, Princeton Basin, circa 1950
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Additional support was provided by
The Bunbury Company and Princeton Rotary Club Dorothy Hartman, Guest Curator Maureen Smyth, Project Director Steve Tucker, Exhibition Designer Yvonne Skaggs, Research Assistant |
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The Historical Society of Princeton
The Historical Society of Princeton
The Historical Society of Princeton received an operating support grant from the New Jersey Historical Commission, a division of the Department of State. |
“The Historical Society of Princeton (HSP) is a museum and library dedicated to interpreting the history of Princeton, with community support and involvement. Its activities are inspired by the past with the goal of informing the future.”
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