PARADISE DITCH

[Music] [Music] before the railroads came the canals more than 4,000 miles of man-made waterways were built east of the Mississippi this one the Delaware division canal parallel in the Delaware River south of Easton Pennsylvania is one of the few to escape total abandonment after the last mule told barge pass through here in 1931 and there was talk of filling in the ditch to accommodate a superhighway artists and beauty lovers from all walks of life band together and fought to keep the canal well a 160 miles of Sylvan paradise is the result [Music] I'm still out of a job you see I used to guide the boats at night since all navigation ceased I have been doing nothing but hang around this lock at Easter the old lock tender that the state hires to take care of canal property here keeps polishing me until I feel like a blamed idiot [Music] strangest thing kids in the neighborhood never get tired of looking at me and here in the old fella recollect canal lore he declares canals would be running everywhere today if the towing mule could have kept pace with the Iron Horse nine ocker is what old-timers called the big three window lanterns like me with a wick two inches wide and a reflector seven inches in diameter I guess you can imagine how important I was before the days of the electric headlight many's the inky night I rode the bow end of a canal boat showing the steersman and the Buell teamed away here comes the old watchman again with his collection of maps and dog-eared canal literature just as if he'd never shown it to the boys a dozen times before lehigh canal he always explains got its water from and followed the Lehigh River used to be used mostly for all in coal from the Pennsylvania anthracite regions some 70 miles above eastern south from east to here the canal followed the Delaware River most of the way and was called the Delaware Canal a big dam across the Lehi at Easton tangles the waters of the canal and river so that they feed the Delaware Canal rest of the water spills to the Delaware River coal barges from the Lehigh are often ferried across the Delaware River here and sent on to New York Bay through New Jersey's Morris Canal whose gateway still stands on the banks of the Delaware at Phillipsburg like a massive monument to the Canal era Pennsylvania's Lehigh canal in River merged as one in many places this unique cable bridge about two miles above the east and damn in spite of its rollercoaster characteristics was built to accommodate mule teams in the serious business of transform the canal boat route from one Shore to Lehigh River to the other it was always kind of a dream land to use another several miles upstream where the Lehigh Canal has its own channel is a canal boat graveyard old barges just like the one I used to file it pulled ashore for the last time left to rot in a watery grave although commercial navigation in the Lehigh canal was suspended shortly after 1930 an occasional passport was still issued by the canal company for the passage of pleasure craft a toll of one quarter cents a mile admitted the canoeist to a world of utter peace and enchantment [Music] [Music] to thank those wonderful navigation days are ended by the thankful I am though for being where I can still look down upon one of the old locks just seeing the tender puttering around there even if for nothing more than opening and closing the gate wicks to regulate the flow of water sure does my old wick a world of good we stand there sometimes stare and I'm sure he has wonderful visions of books still coming true in their heyday there were over 2,000 volts operating through the Lehigh and Delaware Canal capable of carrying 70 to 80 tons of coal sometimes with the captain's family to boot in the tiny Stern End compartment every few miles the boats had to be put through a lot which carried them to a higher or lower terrain missed fights often flared between captains to determine whose boat was going through first in spite of the snail's pace flight in which canal transportation is regarded today you'll moderns would stare bug-eyed if you could have seen with what speed canal has put their clumsy 100-foot holes through a lock well not quite this fast these scenes were taken when movies were silent and films were projected slower once inside the deep Stonewall Chiba water level was regulated with the gates producing the smoothest run and most powerful elevator ever conceived by man tons of coal hoisted a smoothly as silently as a mere leap on the water's surface [Music] only minutes after entering the lock sturdy mules had the boats on their way again as we've seen they some the Iron Horse could not be matched American transportation is grieving [Music] today few motorists realize that strange stone crumbling feet road sites parallel in the highway are often the remains of a once thriving two hundred million dollar transportation system in contrast to this devastation the restored Delaware division is a heavenly sight what could be more su than to behold than this century-old aqueduct spill in its lacy curtain of water [Music] today's youngsters will never have the thrill of hanging onto a plot in canal boat amid the sound of mule bells and a captain's furious cries but if I know young pride no one need worry about their ingenuity for finding new ways to enjoy the canal Rosevelt State Park is what the Commonwealth has named this avenue of escape in honor of Teddy Roosevelt I can just imagine the itinerary sayin a 60 mile long mirror reflect in America's past a veritable artist's paradise through Bucks County where Daniel Boone grew up past silent buildings of Horry vintage through sunny villages and towns that had their beginnings and canal both days like New Hope here but a far cry from ghost towns today for they have destroyed the ghosts of the past by perpetuating the spirit of yesterday New Hope is gaining considerable famous in art colony I hear what Philadelphia New York and Trenton folks Block in to its galleries and famous summer players New Hope's Creek and old grist mill who ever dreamed that someday Broadway would take it under its wing passing time and shifting scenery guess they do have something in common when an excursion barge loaded with people passes through the canal these days there's something theatrical about that - it's like a return engagement by popular request a reenactment of days 100 years ago when people traveled by canal packet and their 50 mile a day average packed more adventure than 500 miles today [Music] well that's about as much light as I can throw on this subject with my station in life so fix these dates I'd give my right windowpane for one more trip through the old canal what a wonderful avenue of escape it must be for the human nervous system in this age of roar and motors kailash infuse and a permanent epidemic of high blood pressure between you and amendment I think maybe under circumstances like these I wouldn't mind being human myself you [Music]