LEHIGH CANAL, EASTON

The Lehigh Canal was built to transport anthracite coal from the upper Lehigh Valley to urban northeast markets. The canal was designed by Canvass White, an engineer of New York's Erie Canal and was constructed between 1827 and 1829. The Lehigh Canal extended 46 miles between Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania (present-day Jim Thorpe) and Easton with 52 locks, eight guard locks, eight dams and six aqueducts, allowing the waterway to overcome a difference in elevation of over 350 feet. During the 1830s, an extension of 26 miles (42 km) to White Haven, Pennsylvania, which included 20 dams and 29 locks, was constructed, covering a difference in elevation of over 600 feet. The canal was used as a means of transportation until the 1940s (about a decade after other similar canals ceased operations), making it the last fully functioning towpath canal in North America. Several segments of the canal are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.