The Schuylkill Canal - B212

In 1825, the Schuylkill Navigation Company completed a waterway of 108 miles, linking Port Carbon to Philadelphia. The waterway consisted of a system of interconnected canals, locks, and slack-water pools to transport anthracite coal.  Before that time, Philadelphia depended on the import of coal from Europe.  The Sch. Canal was operational until1931, around the collapse of commercial traffic in navigation. Only two watered stretches of the canal remain today: about 2.5 miles of the original 3.5 miles of Oakes Reach between Oaks and Mont Clare and the one-mile reach in Manayunk.  While these areas are no longer used for navigation, they are enjoyed recreationally by many in the surrounding communities.

Karen Rodemich Roman, formerly a volunteer with the Sch. Canal Assoc. now serves on the assoc. board of directors.  She has compiled the photographs for this book from the SCA's photographic archives, as well as other local sources, in an effort to convey the history and importance of the Sch. Canal.

.