Notes to
Accompanying the “STANYS ECO-RIDE”
Dr. Michael J.
Passow
White Plains Middle School, White Plains, NY
New York City Section Earth Science Subject Area Representative
michael@earth2class.org
Geological
Setting
The Nevele Grande lies in the “Great Valley of the
Appalachians,” a feature that can be traced through the Ridge and Valley
Province of Eastern North America for almost 1,200 miles (1900 km). It is
actually a series of valleys, which in New York include parts of the Walkill,
Hudson, and Champlain.
More specifically, it lies in the Port Jervis Trough,
developed on Devonian limestones that weathered relatively rapidly and
separate the eastern edge of the Allegheny Plateau and Shawangunk-Kittatinny
Mountain, a ridge of Lower Silurian sandstone.
(Thornbury, W.D., 1965, Regional Geomorphology of the
United States. John Wiley & Sons, pp. 109, 113.
The valley is composed of Devonian carbonates (the Onondaga
Limestone) lying between the Shawangunk Ridge (conglomerate) composed of
middle Silurian clastics and the Allegheny Front, composed of Devonian clastic
strata of the Hamilton Group (sands, shales, silts.) The Shawangunk has been
interpreted as a beach deposit and as a braided stream deposit in a complex
transitional marine-continental environment.
The Shawangunk is conformable with the overlying Bloomsburg
Red Beds (red sands, silts, and clays), which are inferred to be an alluvial
deposit shed westward from the mountains of the Taconian Orogeny into a sea
which existed to the west.
L. E. O’Brien, Geology Across the Great Valley from the
Shawangunks to the Hudson Highlands, in New York State Geological Association
59th Annual Meeting, November 6 – 8, 1987, Field Trip Guidebook (R.H.
Waines, ed.), pp. F-1 – F-5.
Southeast of the Appalachian Plateaus is the Appalachian
Valley and Ridge Province, a belt of sinuous ridges that curves northward
through Virginia and most of Pennsylvania. Here the carpet of sedimentary
rocks was buckled into tight folds during the last Appalachian
mountain-building episode. Farther southeast is the Great Valley, a lowland
created largely by groundwater and surface water slowly dissolving the
carbonate bedrock. This valley merges northeastward with the one occupied by
the Hudson River and Lake Champlain. Southeast of the Great Valley is the
hilly Piedmont Province.
Bedrock generally is covered by a skin of soil and other
loose material, especially in regions with humid climates. This cover material
results as weathering breaks down the surface rock. The loose materials may
remain in place or be eroded, transported, and deposited by water, wind, or
glacial ice. In 90 percent of New York State, bedrock is buried by surficial
deposits that are more than one meter thick. Most of these deposits were left
by a continental glacier-an ice sheet that was perhaps 2 km thick.
Till is the most abundant
glacial deposit. It is an unsorted mixture of mud, sand, gravel, cobbles, and
boulders that the glacier spread over the countryside. Till can be up to 50
meters thick. It is generally thickest in valleys and thinnest over highlands.
Moraines are elongate ridges or strings of hills that formed at the
edge of the glacier and are composed of sand, gravel, or till.
http://gretchen.geo.rpi.edu/roecker/nys/nys_edu.pamphlet.html
Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River
includes portions of the historic Delaware and Hudson Canal, the country's
first million-dollar private enterprise. Constructed from 1825 to 1829 — with
16 miles of gravity railway and 108 locks over a 108-mile canal — it was built
to transport anthracite coal from mines in northeastern Pennsylvania to
markets on the Hudson River.
Together with the Pennsylvania Coal Company gravity railroad, the D & H Canal
Company expanded, struggled and transformed throughout the 19th century to
become part of a 171-mile transportation system from Pittston, PA to Kingston,
NY before its demise in 1898. Today, scattered remnants of this once
profitable venture remind us of inevitable changes as technology continues to
evolve.
Why
Build a Canal?
Canals have been built for thousands of years for irrigation, drainage, and
later, transportation. Goods could be moved more efficiently on water than on
horseback or in wagons. Where no suitable water existed for navigation, early
engineers designed canals.
The Industrial Revolution required an even more efficient system to transport
raw materials to factories and markets. Early European settlers recognized the
need for canals in the United States, even before it became an independent
nation in 1776.
The young country could not afford to build canals until the early 1800s, and
then most were financed by the states. The Delaware and Hudson (D & H) Canal
was the first canal in this nation built as a private enterprise.
The Delaware & Hudson
Canal System
The D & H Canal and Gravity Railroad was a system of transportation between
northeastern Pennsylvania coal fields — owned by Philadelphia businessmen
William and Maurice Wurts — and ports of New York and New England. From its
opening in 1828 to its demise in 1898, the canal system transported millions
of tons of anthracite coal.
The Delaware & Hudson Canal Company relied on engineering experience and
technology from other canals — the Erie (NY), Morris (NJ), PA state canals —
and financial backing from wealthy investors and stockholders, including
Philip Hone. The successful D & H was among the few privately-owned canals of
that era.
Construction of the canal lasted from 1825 to 1828, and employed thousands of
laborers. The work — done by hand with pick, shovel and blasting powder — was
difficult and often dangerous.
Carbondale to Honesdale
— 16- mile Gravity Railroad
The D & H Canal Company planned to transport their coal from the mines in
Carbondale, Pennsylvania, to the Hudson River entirely by canal. However, the
availability of water at the summit and the number of locks needed to scale
the Moosic Mountains between Carbondale and Honesdale precluded this plan.
A
"gravity railroad" was the solution, and construction began in 1827. The
"gravity," designed by D & H Chief Engineer John B. Jervis, utilized a series
of inclined planes and steam engines to pull carloads of coal up and over the
Moosic Mountains, a rise of almost 1,000 feet. In his effort to use the latest
transportation technology in England, Jervis's young assistant engineer
Horatio Allen brought to Honesdale America's first steam locomotive, the
Stourbridge Lion.
Completion of the "gravity" in 1829 enabled the canal to transport a great
percent of its tonnage in coal. While built primarily for coal, cargo also
included wood, stone, brick, Rosendale cement, and provisions.
Honesdale to Rondout — 108 Miles, 108 Locks
Navigation on the canal began at the boat basin in Honesdale, where the coal
was transferred from gravity railroad cars to canal boats. The canal's route
followed the banks of the Lackawaxen River until it met the Delaware River.
Boats crossed the Delaware at Lackawaxen, where the canal then paralleled the
New York shore of the Delaware to Port Jervis. There the canal turned
eastward, following the Neversink and Rondout Creeks to the Hudson River,
where the coal was unloaded at Rondout (near Kingston, New York) and sent by
steamship to market.
The D & H Canal was originally 32 feet across at the top, 20 feet at the
bottom, with a depth of four feet; its 76' x 10' locks could accommodate 20-
to 30-ton- capacity boats.
At 1-3 mph, the canal boats pulled by mules made the round trip in 7 to 10
days.
Growth
and Expansion
In its early years, the D & H Canal was buffeted by a wide variety of
troubles: seepage and settling of the banks, a regional cholera epidemic,
opposition by Delaware River raftsmen, fluctuations in the national economy,
and resistance to the use of anthracite. The Stourbridge Lion, the first steam
locomotive used in America, was too heavy for the gravity railroad. In
addition, the D & H competed with other canals (Delaware & Raritan, Morris)
for the same markets in New York City.
Stock prices fluctuated during the early years, but by 1848 the D & H Canal
was probably the nation's largest private corporation. The formation of the
Pennsylvania Coal Company, which brought coal by gravity railroad to Hawley,
Pennsylvania, encouraged the enlargement of the D & H Canal.
In the late 1840s and 1850s, the canal's trunk was deepened to 5, then 6,
feet. Its locks were enlarged to 90' x 15', increasing its capacity from
200,000 tons to one million tons annually. Forty- ton capacity boats were
gradually replaced by boats of up to 140 tons, which could go directly from
the canal to markets up and down the Hudson.
During this period of expansion, John A. Roebling was brought in to work on
four suspension aqueducts, one of the distinguishing features of the D & H
Canal. While the Lackawaxen Aqueduct no longer exists, the
Delaware Aqueduct, now known as the Roebling Bridge, still stands within
Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River. Remnants of the Neversink
Aqueduct are preserved within the
Neversink Valley Area Museum properties in Cuddebackville, NY. Remains of
the High Falls Aqueduct are near the
D & H Canal Historical Society and Museum in High Falls, NY.
Life along the Canal
Life on a canal boat was a "family business." Wives and children worked 15- to
20- hour days along-side boatmen, eking out a meager existence with "the
company."
The D & H Canal affected life throughout the region. Irish and German
immigrants who built and enlarged the canal increased the cultural diversity,
bringing new customs to an area populated mainly by Dutch and English settlers
and a few remaining Native Americans.
New towns and industries (boat builders, glass works, foundries) sprang up
along the canal. Previous industries — lumber mills, paper mills, tanneries,
stone quarries — prospered with improved transportation. Others, like the
Rosendale natural cement industry, took advantage of the proximity of the D &
H Canal
Demise
of an Era
In the latter part of the 1800s, railroads grew while canals declined.
Transportation by canal was limited by winter weather conditions, droughts and
floods. Railroads were better able to reach new markets. By the turn of the
20th century in the Upper Delaware River Valley, the Erie Railroad was
thriving and the D & H Canal was abandoned.
Today, little survives of the D & H Canal and its associated industries.
However, remnants of the canal may be seen along its former route. Where these
features are preserved and protected, you may glimpse into the life of a
by-gone era.
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