Delaware River

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Image:Delaware river watershed.gif The Delaware River is a river on the Atlantic coast of the United States. The Delaware was explored by Adriaen Block as part of the New Netherlands Colony, and was named the South River to mark the southernmost reach of that colony.

It meets tide-water at Trenton, New Jersey. Its total length, from the head of the longest branch to the capes, is 410 miles (660 km), and above the head of the bay its length is 360 miles (579 km).

It constitutes in part the boundary between Pennsylvania and New York, the boundary between New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and, for a few miles, the boundary between Delaware and New Jersey. William Penn delegated defence responsibilites of predominantly Quaker Pennsylvania to Delaware by setting the New Jersey border to the mean low tide line on the Jersey side of the river.

The main, west or Mohawk branch rises in Schoharie County, New York, about 1886 feet (575 m) above the sea, near Mount Jefferson, and flows tortuously through the plateau in a deep trough, impounded at one point to create Cannonsville Reservoir, the largest in New York City's water supply system, then becoming the state boundary at the 42nd parallel, until it emerges from the Catskills. Similarly, the East Branch begins from a small pond south of Grand Gorge in the town of Roxbury in Delaware County, flowing southward toward its impoundment by New York City to create Pepacton Reservoir. The confluence is just south of Hancock.

After leaving the mountains and plateau, the river flows down broad Appalachian valleys, skirts the Kittatinny range, which it crosses at the Delaware Water Gap, between nearly vertical walls of sandstone, and passes through a quiet and charming country of farm and forest, diversified with plateaus and escarpments, until it crosses the Appalachian plain and enters the hills again at Easton, Pa. From this point it is flanked at intervals by fine hills, and in places by cliffs, of which the finest are the Hockamixon Rocks, 3 miles (5 km) long and above 200 feet (60 m) high.

At Trenton there is a fall of 8 feet (2.4 m). Below Trenton the river becomes a broad, sluggish inlet of the sea, with many marshes along its side, widening steadily into its great estuary, Delaware Bay. Image:DelawareRiverDWG.jpg

Its main tributaries in New York are Mongaup and Neversink rivers and Callicoon Creek; from Pennsylvania, Lackawaxen, Lehigh, and Schuylkill rivers; and from New Jersey, Rancocas Creek and Musconetcong and Maurice rivers. Oldmans and Raccoon creeks are tributaries in New Jersey.

Commerce was once important on the upper river, primarily prior to railway competition (1857).

The Delaware division of the Pennsylvania Canal, running parallel with the river from Easton to Bristol, opened in 1830.
The Delaware and Raritan Canal, running from Trenton to New Brunswick, unites the waters of the Delaware and Raritan rivers.
The Morris Canal and the Delaware and Hudson Canal connect the Delaware and Hudson rivers.
The Chesapeake and Delaware Canal joins the waters of the Delaware with those of the Chesapeake Bay.

The mean tides below Philadelphia are about 6 feet. The magnitude of the commerce of Philadelphia has made the improvements of the river below that port of great importance. Small improvements were attempted by Pennsylvania as early as 1771.

In the "project of 1885" the United States government undertook systematically the formation of a 26 ft (8 m) channel 600 ft (180 m) wide from Philadelphia to deep water in Delaware Bay. The River and Harbor Act of 1899 provided for a 30 foot (9 m) channel 600 feet (180 m) wide from Philadelphia to the deep water of the bay.

1 Crossings
2 Tributaries
3 See also
4 References
5 External links

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Crossings

Image:Washington Crossing the Delaware.png Template:Main The Delaware River is a major barrier to travel between New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Most of the larger bridges are tolled only westbound, and are owned by the Delaware River and Bay Authority, Delaware River Port Authority, Burlington County Bridge Commission or Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission.

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Tributaries

Image:Delaware river chart 1655.jpeg

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References

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition{{#if:{{{article|}}}| article {{#if:{{{url|}}}|[{{{url|}}}}} "{{{article}}}"{{#if:{{{url|}}}|]}}{{#if:{{{author|}}}| by {{{author}}}}}}}, a publication now in the public domain.

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