In 1824, the Morris Canal & Banking Company was chartered to build a canal carrying Pennsylvania coal to markets along the eastern seaboard. The Canal Society of New Jersey says the waterway opened in 1831 and relied on 23 lift locks and 23 water-powered inclined planes. According to the American Society of Civil Engineers, the inclined planes were essentially short railways that let boats change as much as 100 feet in elevation in 15 minutes. The canal climbed 914 feet from Newark Bay to Lake Hopatcong, then dropped 760 feet to the Delaware River at Phillipsburg.
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