CANALS & LOCKS
Our galleries use the Schuylkill Navigation Company's lock numbering for the 1846 enlargement of the system. After this enlargement, according to engineer Charles Ellet's account, there were 71 locks ending with Locks 71/72 at Fairmount. Make sure to read about Lock 41 to find out why it disappeared on later Profiles.
The gallery for Locks 1-27 is not organized by canal names because in this steep upper section the canals were extremely short or nonexistent. Some did have (numerous) names, which can be seen on the various Engineer's Profiles. And, note that Locks 28/29, 49, 62, and 63 were in the river, without canals. In fact, Lock 29 is currently under the river! For more on that, see the Kernsville Dam page under Restorations.
The Reading Canal was shortened in 1834 and new locks were built in the river instead. We have included those river locks, 42-44, under the heading of Reading Canal.
Our galleries use the Schuylkill Navigation Company's lock numbering for the 1846 enlargement of the system. After this enlargement, according to engineer Charles Ellet's account, there were 71 locks ending with Locks 71/72 at Fairmount. Make sure to read about Lock 41 to find out why it disappeared on later Profiles.
The gallery for Locks 1-27 is not organized by canal names because in this steep upper section the canals were extremely short or nonexistent. Some did have (numerous) names, which can be seen on the various Engineer's Profiles. And, note that Locks 28/29, 49, 62, and 63 were in the river, without canals. In fact, Lock 29 is currently under the river! For more on that, see the Kernsville Dam page under Restorations.
The Reading Canal was shortened in 1834 and new locks were built in the river instead. We have included those river locks, 42-44, under the heading of Reading Canal.
©Sandy Sorlien 2020
