Four Gone and For-gotten Traditional Cache

This cache has been archived.

OReviewer: As there's been no response to my earlier note, I am forced to archive this listing.

If you wish to repair/replace the cache sometime in the future, just contact me email, including the GC Code, and assuming it meets the guidelines, we'll be happy to unarchive it.

Thanks,
-OReviewer

More
Hidden : 12/29/2009
Difficulty:
1.5 out of 5
Terrain:
2.5 out of 5

Size: Size: micro (micro)

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Geocache Description:

The ruins of the largest aqueduct on the Schuylkill Canal

Imagine you lived in the village of Birdsboro in 1825. The opening of the Schuylkill Canal meant that this sleepy town was now right on what served as a major highway in those days.
The Schuylkill Canal was the first canal built in the US using locks to raise and lower boats (it opened 5 months before the Erie Canal!). Formally known as the Schuylkill Navigation System, construction started in 1816 and the first boats used it in 1825. An engineering masterpiece, the system consisted of canal segments (called "reaches" and slack-water segments where a tow-path was built along a lake formed by a dam. The longest reach was the Girard reach, running from just upstream from Spring City to two miles south of reading.

The longest aqueduct (used to carry the canal over intersecting streams) was the Hay Creek Aqueduct. This was a four-arched structure built out of native stone. Unfortunately, Hay Creek is prone to flooding and this aqueduct was removed in 1955 because it acted like a dam during floods.

The only parts remaining of the Hay Creek Aqueduct are the two abutments on either side of the creek. As you look at them think about how hard it was to build this without modern machinery!

More about this section of the canal can be found at (visit link)

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