In the 1960s, the US began displacing around 600 families for a 40-mile reservoir; in 1975 the dam was shelved and their land became a 70,000-acre national park

The US government once planned to flood a 40-mile stretch of the Delaware River valley to build a massive reservoir, only to cancel the project and turn the acquired land into a sprawling federal parkland. The Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, a 70,000-acre national park spanning Pennsylvania and New Jersey, exists today as the unexpected result of the abandoned Tocks Island Dam project. What began as an ambitious mid-century plan to control floods and generate hydroelectric power ended in 1975, when regional authorities voted to cancel the project, leaving 40 miles of free-flowing river under the National Park Service.

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