Inclined Planes Traditional Cache

The Morris Canal series of caches are placed along the canal towpath in partnership with the Waterloo Village Historic Site and the Canal Society of New Jersey to showcase the important early transportation across New Jersey. The Morris Canal connected the Delaware and Hudson Rivers and facilitated development of cities and industry in New York and New Jersey.

Over its 102 mile length, the Morris Canal went through elevation changes that totaled 1,674 feet. It introduced a unique way to go up and down large hills. The canal boats were moved over 23 “inclined planes”, which were basically small, water-powered railroads. The canal boat would be floated onto a special car called a cradle car. The cable car had wheels and was set on rails. A cable that was powered by water drawn from upstream would pull the car and the boat out of the water and up or down the hill.

At the top of the plane, the cable pulled the car and the boat back into the canal. The mules would be reattached to the boat and the journey continued.

From his lofty station in the cupola on the Powerhouse, the plane tender had a clear view of activities at both the top and bottom of the plane. When he heard the brakeman’s signal, he opened the valve sending tons of water from the headrace flume down into the turbine below. Water from the canal's upper level flowed into a headrace flume to the powerhouse, where it dropped 50 feet through the penstock to a large underground waterwheel known as a “Turbine”.

The inclined planes were first powered by overshot water wheels. Then “Scotch Turbines” were installed. These are cast iron “pin wheels” approximately 12.5 feet in diameter. The massive turbine operated on the same principal as a giant revolving lawn sprinkler. The force of a five-foot diameter column of water dropping that distance, flowing up through the turbine and shooting out of the turbine rotor’s four curved made the turbine spin, at approximately 67 RPM. Water exited the powerhouse through the tailrace. A drive shaft attached to the rotor was geared to the cable winding drum in the powerhouse overhead. This powered the 2 inch diameter cable that pulled the cradle car holding the 70 ton canal boat. The cables were made by the Roebling Co.; the same Roebling that built the Brooklyn Bridge. The lock tender then engaged the winding drum, setting the cable into motion, and starting the cradle car and boat on its way either up or down the plane.

The Plane Summit was the point where the top of the inclined plane met the upper level of the canal. The plane tracks came over the summit and down into the water of the canal. As boats waited their turn, the brakeman helped each captain to jockey his ninety-foot long canal boat into or out of the cradle car submerged in the canal. Once secured, the boat and cradle were pulled out of the water, over the summit and then lowered down the plane. Because they were so long, the boats and cradle cars were built in two sections so they could bend as they crossed the summit. The canal boat would reach the top of the slope in about 12 minutes, which would have otherwise taken 10 locks and 2 hours to accomplish the same feat. The planes cost little more than a flight of locks of the same lift, consumed less than 1/20th the amount of water required by locks and saved 80% of the time of passage.