A Transportation Hub

A Transportation Hub. . , OVER THE CENTURIES , The native Lenape paddled their boats on the Delaware River and trod footpaths through the woods. Settlers maneuvered their wagons on dirt roads. Adventurous oarsmen guided rafts of timber to be sold down river. Business people carried materials and goods in Durham boats made famous by George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River during the Revolutionary War., CHANGING THE LANDSCAPE , The Delaware Canal provided a way to avoid the river's falls and rapids. Its 23 lift locks allowed cargo-filled canal boats to safely overcome elevation changes. Lock 22 and Lock 23, the first locks south of Easton, were located here. Each was capable of handling one 80-foot-long by 10½-foot-wide canal boat., To ease traffic congestion in the mid-1800s, the two locks were combined into one and made wide enough to accommodate two canal boats at a time. As a result, it is the deepest of all the Delaware Canal locks. Locally, it is known as Groundhog Lock., "Trolley fever" struck the area in the early 1900s. The hillside to the west of the lock was excavated to make way for the Doylestown-Easton Street Railway tracks. It took two hours to travel the full 32-mile route, and cost, at most, 88 cents. Automobiles broke the "fever." The trolley company was plagued with financial problems and went out of business in 1926., Today, PA Route 611 carries cars, trucks, and motorcycles north and south. Where once there were many routes of transportation, only one remains., "We rode the trolley to our high school in Easton. The riders knew us and so did the conductors. They looked out for us and patiently waited at our stops, sometimes tooting their horns, if we were late." , Jane Kiefer Leary - Trolley Memories of a Raubsville Resident, [Illustration captions, top to bottom, read] , . The Doylestown-Easton trolley line ran on the hillside above the Delaware Canal., . There were 15 stops on the trolley route, along with two power houses., . A canal boat enteres Lock 22/23 from the south in 1907.