Schuylkill Navigation: Celebrating 200 years

SAVE THE DATES
BICENTENNIAL DAYS  May 17-20, 2025
with activities in
READING and other CANAL TOWNS
along the Schuylkill River

Articles, links, and listings will be posted here to promote the 200th birthday celebration of the Schuylkill Navigation, Pennsylvania’s pioneering slackwater-canal system. This page will be updated as the anniversary approaches.

TWO CANALS

Philadelphia has two canals:
The Manayunk Canal, still watered with intact lock chambers at both ends.
The Fairmount Canal, with just a few hidden remnants left.

This 12-page booklet by Fairmount Water Works educator Sandy Sorlien tells the story of both our canals, and the legacy of the associated industries, pollution, and cleanup.

Together these Philadelphia canals didn’t even add up to three miles. But they were critical levels of the 108-mile Schuylkill Navigation that brought anthracite coal and other cargo from Schuylkill County all the way to our tide lock at the Fairmount Dam, some boats continuing on New Jersey canals to New York City. The Navigation canals also provided critical water power to mills.

TWENTY-SEVEN CANALS

The Schuylkill Navigation is often called the Schuylkill Canal. But actually the system included 27 canals, each with its own name, not to mention 32 dams and their slackwater pools. Thus, 200 years ago, the shallow, rocky Schuylkill River was tamed. Boats up to 100 feet long traveled in and out of the river pools and canals. They brought cargo from coal country to tidewater, and went back up. There were scores of hand-built stone locks to handle the elevation change, totaling 618 feet of “lift”, and aqueducts to carry the canals over streams. The Navigation ceased operation by the 1930s, but many structures survive: some standing in the woods, some buried under fill; one even survives underwater.

The private Schuylkill Navigation Company, based in Philadelphia, chartered their system in 1815. Construction began in 1816, a year before the Erie Canal started their construction. The upper and lower sections of the Schuylkill Navigation were built simultaneously with individual canals operating as early as 1818 or 1819, including the one in Manayunk. The two long sections finally connected through Reading on May 20, 1825.

This new article by Stuart Wells explains why we chose that date to celebrate.

This video by Larry Whyte provides an excellent, illustrated overview of the system.

Mile No. 44, Reading PA, 1827. The 1825 Reading Canal route appears in blue. The adjusted post-1833 route is sketched lower right by a later “Mystery Pencil.” Map by T. H. Gill, Schuylkill Navigation Company, Manuscript Group 110. Used courtesy of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Pennsylvania State Archives, Harrisburg.

SCHUYLKILL NAVIGATION BICENTENNIAL
2025 EVENTS

Late Winter and Early Spring 2025: Navigation Cleanups: Auburn Tunnel, Snyder’s Aqueduct, Lock 27, Lock 57, Vincent Canal, etc.
Spring 2025: Grand Reopening of the Manayunk Canal at Flat Rock, insider’s tours with Philadelphia Water Department
Saturday, April 5, 2025: All-Day Canal-Rail Excursion with Reading Blue Mountain & Northern Railroad, a fundraiser for the American Canal Society.
May 17-20, 2025: Details below
June 2025: Schuylkill Sojourn Adopt-a-Canal-Boat

Canal Heritage Marker Dedication Ceremonies (Dates TBA)

BICENTENNIAL WEEKEND May 17-20, 2025

PARTIES

Friday May 16: Reading Fightin’ Phillies baseball picnic OR music/brewpub
Saturday May 17: Reading Fightin’ Phillies baseball picnic OR music/brewpub


Guard Lock 47 of the post-1833 Reading Canal was crossed by this girder rail bridge, once carrying the PRR Schuylkill Valley Branch, now the Schuylkill River Trail. The mural pays homage to Reading’s canal history. Designed by Mike Miller and Ed Terrell and painted by the Olivet Boys and Girls Club. Photograph ©2017 Sandy Sorlien.

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE SCHUYLKILL NAVIGATION

VIDEO PRESENTATIONS

HISTORIC MAPS & DRAWINGS

BOOKS AND ARTICLES

PRIMARY SOURCE DOCUMENTS
Acts of the Legislature of Pennsylvania relative to the Schuylkill Navigation Company. Philadelphia: Joseph and William Kite, 1838

More Resources on the Schuylkill Navigation Facebook Page


The shadow image at the top of the page is a detail from an 1847 map of the Manayunk Canal by John Levering, from the collection of the City Plans Unit, Streets Department of Philadelphia. This tracing of the original was made by H. H. Platt, probably in the late 19th century. You can view the full map here.

FEEDBACK