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DELAWARE RIVER

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Originally appearing in Volume V07, Page 951 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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DELAWARE See also:RIVER , a stream of the See also:Atlantic slope of the See also:United States; See also:meeting See also:tide-See also:water at Trenton, New See also:Jersey,130 M. above its mouth. Its See also:total length, from the See also:head of the longest See also:branch to the capes, is 410 m., and above the head of the See also:bay its length is 36o m- It constitutes in See also:part the boundary between See also:Pennsylvania and New See also:York, the boundary between New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and, for a few See also:miles, the boundary between Delaware and New Jersey. The See also:main, See also:west or See also:Mohawk branch rises in Schoharie See also:county, N.Y., about 1886 ft. above the See also:sea, and flows tortuously through the See also:plateau in a deep trough until it emerges from the Catskills. Other branches rise in See also:Greene and Delaware counties. In the upper portion of its course the varied scenery of its hilly and wooded See also:banks is exquisitely beautiful. After leaving the mountains and plateau, the river flows down broad Appalachian valleys, skirts the Kittatinny range, which it crosses at Delaware Water-See also:Gap, between nearly See also:vertical walls of See also:sandstone, and passes through a quiet and charming See also:country of See also:farm and See also:forest, diversified with plateaus and escarpments, until it crosses the Appalachian See also:plain and enters the hills again at See also:Easton, Pa. From this point it is flanked at intervals by See also:fine hills, and in places by cliffs, of which the finest are the Hockamixon Rocks, 3 M. See also:long and above 200 ft. high. At Trenton there is a fall of 8 ft. Below Trenton the river becomes a broad, sluggish inlet of the sea, with many marshes along its See also:side, widening steadily into its See also:great See also:estuary, Delaware Bay. Its main tributaries in New York are Mongaup and Neversink See also:rivers and Callicoon See also:Creek; from Pennsylvania, Lackawaxen, Lehigh and Schuylkill rivers; and from New Jersey, Rancocas Creek and Musconetcong and See also:Maurice rivers. See also:Commerce was once important on the upper river, but only before the beginning of railway competition (1857). The Delaware See also:division of the Pennsylvania See also:Canal, See also:running parallel with the river from Easton to See also:Bristol, was opened in 183o.

A canal from Trenton to New See also:

Brunswick unites the See also:waters of the Delaware and Raritan rivers; the See also:Morris and the Delaware and See also:Hudson canals connect the Delaware and Hudson rivers; and the Delaware and Chesapeake canal joins the waters of the Delaware with those of the Chesapeake Bay. The mean tides below See also:Philadelphia are about 6 ft. The magnitude of the commerce of Philadelphia has made the improvements of the river below that See also:port of great,importance. Small improvements were attempted by Pennsylvania as See also:early as 1771, but apparently never by New Jersey. The See also:ice floods at Easton are normally 10 to 20 ft., and in 1841 attained a height of 35 ft. These floods constitute a serious difficulty in the improvement of the See also:lower river. In the " project of 1885 " the United States See also:government undertook systematically the formation of a 26-ft. channel 600 ft. wide from Philadelphia to deep water in Delaware Bay; $1,532,688.81 was expended—about $200,000 of that amount for maintenance—before the 1885 project was superseded by a See also:paragraph of the River and Harbor See also:Act of the 3rd of See also:March 1899, which provided for a 3o-ft. channel 600 ft. wide from Philadelphia to the deep water of the bay. In 1899 the project of 1885 had been completed except for three shoal stretches, whose total length, measured on the range lines, was 41 M. The project of 1899, estimated to cost $5,81o,000, was not completed at the See also:close of the fiscal See also:year (See also:June 30) 1907, when $4,936,550.63 had been expended by the Federal government on 'the See also:work; in 1905 the See also:state of Pennsylvania appropriated $750,000 for improvement of the river in Pennsylvania, See also:south of Philadelphia.

End of Article: DELAWARE RIVER

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