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The Roebling Bridge across the Delaware -- connecting the past and present

© Brian Salisbury

The upper portion of the Delaware River flows south for 74 miles from Hancock, N.Y., in the Catskill Mountains past Port Jervis, N.Y. Just a few miles farther downstream, it courses through the narrow Delaware Water Gap -- a mile-long breach in the Appalachians that includes a tight "S" at Kittatinny Ridge.

As part of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System, the upper Delaware and its surrounding countryside offer a fine blend of scenery, history and twisty roads for great motorcycle riding. However, just recently, I learned I'd been driving past one of the river's unique attractions without realizing its engineering and historic significance.

The oldest bridge like it in America

The oldest existing wire cable suspension bridge in the nation -- the Delaware Aqueduct, or Roebling Bridge, as it is now known -- connects the small towns of Minisink Ford, N.Y., and Lackawaxen, P.A., on opposite sides of the Delaware.

John A. Roebling, future engineer of the Brooklyn Bridge, designed this suspension aqueduct and supervised its construction as part of the 108-mile-long Delaware and Hudson Canal.

From 1828 until 1898, the D&H Canal system linked the coalfields of northeastern Pennsylvania with New York City and other markets along the Hudson River. The D&H Canal Company completed the 535-foot-long Delaware Aqueduct in 1848, along with three other Roebling-designed suspension aqueducts, as part of a series of system-wide enlargements and improvements.

The Delaware Aqueduct replaced what was called a "slackwater dam" that created a deep, wide, slow moving section in the river. Mules and their drivers crossed this slackwater pool using a rope ferry, while the barges and rafts were poled across to a guard lock on the opposite bank.

From the time the waterway began operating in 1829, the slackwater dam and rope ferry crossing system caused major bottlenecks in canal traffic. The Delaware Aqueduct alleviated this congestion and reduced each boat's time on the canal by at least two days.

A river over a river

I've crossed the Delaware a few times via the Roebling Bridge. But I did not fully comprehend that this walled wooden chute was built originally to enable 140-ton coal barges to float some 30 feet above the river. Mule teams, plodding along towpaths built onto both sides of the aqueduct, pulled the barges from end to end of this man-made channel of water.

That's not all.

Together, the towns on both ends of the Delaware Aqueduct constituted a bustling port complex containing barge repair facilities, docks, stables, warehouses, feeder canals and supply depots. The port operated 24 hours a day throughout the year, except when ice and snow brought canal traffic to a halt.

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