Delaware & Hudson Canal

With the opening of the Erie Canal, "canal fever" swept many parts of the United States and hastened the development of the Delaware & Hudson Canal. A few decades later, just after the Civil War, "railroad fever" gripped the nation, creating a new, more efficient mode of transportation and leading eventually to the demise of the canals.
The D&H Canal and the Ontario and Western Railroad coexisted for some time, as company managers, driven by a desire to get more coal to market quicker, began to acquire railroad lines farther to the west and north or to the outside of the D&H Canal corridor to supplement the work of the canal. Eventually, however, moving coal by railroad car proved to be much more effective. Trains moved faster than canal boats, carried bigger loads, were cheaper to operate, and hauled coal year-round, while ice and snow forced the canal to close for three months every year. The railroad, which initially fed the canal, gradually consumed it.

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O&W & Summitville Station
History of the Canal
Towpath
Locks
Waste Weirs
Canal Basin & Sluiceway
Lock No. 50
Dry Docks
Ending at Rondout
Demise of the Canal

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