Geocache Identification Permit Approval Number: AMSP20190907032
Permit Expires on: 09/07/22
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.
One day in 1822, a Morristown man named George P. McCulloch was fishing at Great Pond, or Lake Hopatcong as it is now called. It occurred to him that the amount of water spilling out of that lake would be enough to maintain a canal running from Hopatcong east to Newark and west to the Delaware. At that time coal from the mines in the vicinity of Easton, Pa., had to be transported to eastern cities by the long water route down the Delaware and up the New Jersey coast, or by wagons which could haul only a ton.
McCulloch's idea gained in popularity, and in 1824 the New Jersey Legislature issued a charter for the “Morris Canal and Banking Company” to raise funds to build the canal. Construction of the Morris Canal began and by September 1825, thirty miles were under contract with 700 men engaged in digging the canal bed. Construction of the locks and inclined planes began later. By the next year, 1,100 men were working on the canal.
1827 Planning Map for the Morris Canal
Hand labor was literally the backbone of the construction job. Concrete, as used today, was unknown. All masonry had to be of stone construction, held together by lime mortar. There were no compressed air drills or dynamite, no steam shovels or motor trucks, no iron girders or "I" beams. A working day was from sunrise to sunset. The wages were 90 cents a day or even less.
Rocks were blasted by drilling holes with hand drills and then filling the holes with black powder. After tamping them with clay and dropping a glowing coal on the clay, the blaster ran for cover before the flying rock crushed him. Practically every foot of earth and stone which formed the canal excavation was removed by hand. Even wheelbarrows were scarce. Horses and oxen were needed for farm work and were grudgingly lent or leased for canal construction.
As different sections of the canal were completed, they were opened up for local use. On November 4, 1831, the first trip from Newark to Phillipsburg was completed. The estimated cost of the canal was $817,000, but when it was completed to Newark in 1831, however, the actual cost was $2,104,413. In 1836 the eleven and three quarter mile extension to Jersey City was added. Within this distance there were 23 inclined planes and 34 locks consisting of feeder, outlet, tide, guard, and lift locks.