Aqueducts On The Canal
"...aqueducts, built of logs, stones, and slabs, such as that across Fishing Creek near Rupert carried the water over creeks and rivers." - Mrs. Hazel Whitenight
What is a canal aqueduct?
Normally when we think of a bridge, we think of a structure that carries non water vehicles over water. Such as a railroad bridge, or a bridge for pedestrians or cars.
An aqueduct on the canal was a bridge for canal boats. It was a bridge over water, that held water. "An aqueduct isolates the waters needed for a canal to function, from the free-flowing waters of a river". When looking at the West Branch Canal maps in particular, aqueducts were almost always over a creek that fed into the river, such as the Pine Creek Aqueduct, The Chillisquaque Aqueduct, The Larry's Creek Aqueduct, etc.
[Please note, as with nearly all the posts on this blog, this is not complete. This is the merely the research that I have up to this point, compiled in one location. I still have a lot to learn and add.]
=============================
Aqueducts On The West Branch Of The Canal
=============================
"The Outlet Locks below Port Penn, and the stone piers and abutments of the Aqueduct that spanned the mouth of Muncy Creek of which pictures accompany these notes-are now deeply interesting relics of the canal, melancholy reminders of the hopes and enterprise and struggles of a generation now resting with their fathers, the hardy elders who drove away the savages and cut down the forest to install the age of the plow. How many are still alive who went through these double locks, and floated in the Aqueduct over Muncy Creek, in a Packet Boat?" - Muncy Valley, By Gernerd A report on the abandoned west branch canal structures lists 15 aqueducts - but that includes the 5 in the planned stretch to Farrandsville, and that 3rd section was never fully completed, so I am not yet certain which, if any, of the aqueducts in that section were completed.
Another report on the West Branch Canal lists "only" 8 aqueducts.
The West Branch Canal consisted of three sections:
- Muncy Line - From Northumberland to the head of the Muncy Pool
- Lycoming Line - From the Muncy Pool to the head of the Lick Run Pool
- Sinnemahoning Line - NEVER COMPLETED from Lick Run to Sinnemahoning
And 2 Short Cut Spurs:
- Lewisburg Cross Cut
- Muncy Cut
The Limestone Run Aqueduct, Milton Pa
(From a NRHP Application)
Read more about the Canal in Milton here:
"But just below this, and near the old boat yard, was the aqueduct, when! the top of the water , was near the planking and the water itself was deep, This spot was really like a large swimming pool arid it I shared in popularity with the other places." - Kohler, Reminisces of Milton
The West Branch Canal Aqueducts Included:
- Chilisquaue Creek Aqueduct
- Limestone Creek Aqueduct
- Muncy Creek Aqueduct
- (Glade Run Aqueduct? Still standing, but not mentioned in any document I have yet found. Part of the canal? Definitely an aqueduct? I simply do not yet know.)
- Lycoming Creek Aqueduct
- Pine Creek Aqueduct
- Little Pine Creek Aqueduct
- Larry's Creek Aqueduct
- Carpenters Run Aqueduct
" The site selected was just below the canal aqueduct over Carpenter's run, a few hundred yards east of his house, and a portion of the excavation for the race is still visible." - Samuel Wallis, Cunning Land King, British Spy
"One car lodged a short distance below the bridge, two others piled up against the Philadelphia and Reading bridge and others were to be seen scattered along between that and the old aqueduct." - The Northumberland Press, reporting on
the wreck of the Oyster Train in Williamsport
"The canal has suffered severely. The aqueduct at the mouth of Lycoming Creek is racked and tilted over, and the abutments much damaged by floating timber. Above the aqueduct no vestige of a canal is visible -both tow-path and heel-path having been swept away. It will take a long time to repair the damages." -
1865 Flood in Williamsport
1978 - Daily Item, Milton Aqueduct near Moose Lodge
A present day view of the remains of the Canal “aqueduct,” (waterway bridge), which once passed over Limestone Run, 70 yards east of this site. The smaller stones are actually the aqueduct remains while the larger, squared boulders are the remains of a Railroad bridge later placed on the canal right-of-way after it was abandoned and filled (Walking Tour/Historical Marker in Milton)
The Aqueduct Over Muddy Run, near Milton.
The Aqueduct at Warrior Run, c. 1890
Old Aqueduct piers at the mouth of Lycoming Creek - River To The Right
More About The West Branch Aqueducts:
=============================
Aqueducts On The North Branch Of The Canal
=============================
I wrote about the Aqueduct Mill, and Boones Dam, when it was being removed in 2025. You can find that post, with lots of photos of the aqueduct, here:
A shorter read - the overview, with photos, in a facebook post:
After the Canal was abandoned, the trolley used the aqueduct bridge at Bloomsburg/Rupert. See more photos of that here:
"The company [Danville Structural Tubing Company] now has an indisputable right to the water there which exists in unfailing supply and which is about the only source available for the works. The company has constructed an aqueduct, which carries the warm and polluted water from the mill over the canal, draining it into the swamp."
More About The North Branch Aqueducts:
==============
Aqueducts On The Susquehanna Division Of The Pennsylvania Canal
===============
The Canal Aqueduct Over Penns Creek at Selinsgrove
Damaged by floods, the aqueduct was torn down in May of 1902
"At Mahantango Creek, the canal is somewhat west of the highway and the lock (south of the creek) and aqueduct ruins are in the woods. Some sections of intact canal are visible north of here. "
The Stretch of Canal between Shamokin Dam and Selinsgrove was known as The Susquehanna Division. It extended from Duncan's Island to Northumberland. In its 41-mile course, the Division embraced 13 locks, 7 aqueducts, old Shamokin Dam, and West Branch Towpath Bridge. See more about this section here:
====================
Other Aqueducts
=====================
The 9 mile long Erie Canal Aqueduct was restored, and is used by boats today. See more about it here:
"However, several bridges serve as vehicular overpasses crossing railroad lines, and a few which now serve as highway bridges were built originally as canal aqueducts."
Construction of the system of canals required solutions for crossing obstacles just as other modes of transportation did. Bridges were built to accommodate intersecting roads, and aqueducts were built to carry the canals and towpaths across streams, large rivers or ravines. Among the aqueducts built for Pennsylvania canals were several designed and built by John A. Roebling, of Brooklyn Bridge fame. Roebling s first aqueduct was a replacement bridge built in 1845 on the Pennsylvania Canal in Pittsburgh. Between 1847 and 1850 he built four aqueducts on the Delaware and Hudson Canal in northeastern Pennsylvania. One of these, the aqueduct at Lackawaxen, is still standing. Innovations in bridge technology and engineering advances developed for canals eventually led to more sophisticated applications in railroad and highway bridge design. It was with the building of America's early canals that a group of field-trained engineers emerged in the United States....
The Bridge in Reed Township [Dauphin County] is a
handsome nineteenth century bridge built for use as an aqueduct the Pennsylvania canal and taken over vehicular use in 20th century. Built of attractive red/white coursed ashlar, the bridge features a belt course, and a continuous parapet cap. The arches are unusual in that they are multicentered This carefully constructed bridge appears to be in excellent condition. This mid-19th century bridge is significant for its unusually fine stone work and high integrity and as part of the Pennsylvania Canal which carried freight and passengers along the Susquehanna through the mid-19th century."
- NHRS Application for Highway Bridges.
There is an "Aqueduct Falls" in Luzerne County Pa
======================
STILL MORE CANAL POSTS
(I really love the canal history, obviously)
An Index Of Stories, Photos, and History from The Canal
======================
ASSORTED AQUEDUCT NOTES
& REFERENCES
====================
An aqueduct being built for PA Canal Co At Pine Creek - The American Architect and Building News. (1880). United States: James R. Osgood & Company.
"Soon the famous old Pennsylvania canal will be abandoned forever. Manufacturers and others have been -notified to look elsewhere for their supplies. The canal was built by the State and was purchased by the Pennsylvania R. R. Company in 1859.
The canal and its branches consist of 144 miles, extending from Columbia to Northumberland thence to Luzerne county and from Northumberland to Loyal Sock near Williamsport.
In its construction there are sixty locks. overcoming 277 feet in elevation, 99 houses for employees; 73 waterway and overflows 309 bridges, 71 culverts five dams across large streams, 33 aqueducts 193 canal boats,8 lumber boats.
The traffic on the canal has not yielded any profits to the owners for several years. Hence its abandonment.."
Berwick Enterprise 1901
===========
SOURCES :
==========
CDM - https://www.canal-du-midi.com/
-What is a canal aqueduct?
An aqueduct is very similar in architecture to a bridge. The difference is that instead of a road passing over the bridge, it is a canal. A large-scale structure of this kind is called a 'canal aqueduct', or 'water bridge'.
An aqueduct isolates the waters needed for a canal to function, from the free-flowing waters of a river. In isolating the canal from natural hazards such as high water levels in rivers, it is protected from alluvium and uncontrolled water volumes. These factors can be catastrophic for the canal and hamper navigation.
.jpg)
No comments:
Post a Comment
I'll read the comments and approve them to post as soon as I can! Thanks for stopping by!