The Railroad That Carried Canal Boats Over Mountains — The Morris Canal Inclined Planes

In 1830, at Montville, New Jersey, a canal boat with two hundred people aboard rose out of the water on a cradle, climbed a hill on rails, and, as a Newark newspaper put it, seemed gently to bow to the spectators and the town below. The Morris Canal carried boats 102 miles across northern New Jersey, up 914 feet and down 760, over the hills on 23 inclined planes powered by nothing but falling water. This is the history of the Morris Canal inclined planes: George Macculloch's idea at Lake Hopatcong, James Renwick's railways for boats, how a loaded coal boat was hauled over a summit by a buried water turbine and Roebling wire rope, the families and child mule drivers who lived on the canal, the bank that nearly sank the company, the railroads that killed it, how it was drained and paved over, the canal in Poland that copied it and still runs today, and where you can see what's left. SOURCES Canal Society of New Jersey, Explore the Morris Canal, and On the Level newsletters (1881 and 1883 newspaper accounts) American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Morris Canal Reaction Turbine landmark (Plane 9 West) American Society of Civil Engineers, Hydraulic-Powered Inclined Plane System of the Morris Canal Herbert M. Wilson, The Morris Canal and its Inclined Planes, Scientific American Supplement (1883) Historic American Engineering Record, Morris Canal Inclined Plane 10 West National Register of Historic Places nomination, Morris Canal New Jersey State Archives, Morris Canal and Banking Company records guide Lehigh University Special Collections, Morris Canal collection Frances Trollope, Domestic Manners of the Americans (1832) Nutley Historical Society, Richard Titus recalls working the Morris Canal U.S. Geological Survey Water-Supply Paper 92 (1904), the Passaic flood of 1903 Warren County, Morris Canal Historic Area and Plane 9 West Morris County, Lock 2 East restoration in Wharton (2022) Poland's National Heritage Board (Zabytek.pl), the Elbląg Canal Parks Canada, Big Chute Marine Railway National Park Service, C&O Canal Georgetown Incline, and John A. Roebling This video is an independent historical documentary made for educational purposes. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by any canal society, park, museum or government agency mentioned. Figures come from the published sources listed above; where sources disagree, we give a range or use the most authoritative one. Archive images are public domain or used under fair use for commentary and education. Some visuals are illustrative reconstructions. Site hours and access change; please check before visiting. If you spot an error, tell us in the comments with your source. Somebody did this by hand. Now you know how. #canal #newjersey #newark #boats