Newspaper Articles

August 7, 1881 - A Narrow Escape
September 4, 1881 - A Heavy Team Plunges into the Canal
April 16, 1882 - The Inclined Plane
March 18, 1883 - The Morris Canal
March 22, 1885 - Purifying the Canal
August 30, 1885 - Horses Frightened by the Cable of the Inclined Plane
January 10, 1886 - Morris Canal Business
April 22, 1900 - The Reversionary Rights in the Morris Canal and the Company's Lakes
March 22, 1903 - The Morris Canal - The Great New Jersey Waterway as It Used to be
May 24, 1903 - Rescued from the Canal
June 5, 1904 - Boy Drowned in Canal
December 17, 1905 - Discussed the Canal Question
January 28, 1906 - Morris Canal is Useless Commercially Under Present Conditions of Neglect
February 11, 1906 - Railroad Scheming Strangled Industry of the Morris Canal
September 13, 1908 - Newark Fishing Banks by Canal Side Part 1
September 13, 1908 - Newark Fishing Banks by Canal Side Part 2
June 26, 1910 - Canoeing on the Canal, From Newark to Lake Hopatcong
January 28, 1912 - Make Canal Parkway
February 4, 1912 - Canal Abandonment
March 17, 1912 - Bed of the Morris Canal as a Trolley Car Route
October 27, 1912 - Canal Investigators Have Hearing This Week

From "A History of the City of Newark"
Lewis Historical Publishing Company

The Morris Canal was a powerful factor in promoting Newark's prosperity and in stimulating street and road development. The agitation for its construction began in the early 1820's. In 1824 the Legislature authorized the building of the canal from the Delaware, near Easton, to the Passaic, near the present city of that name. The canal company was empowered to raise $1,000,000 in capital stock and to increase this by half a million, if this sum should be found necessary to complete the work. In 1828 the canal company was authorized to extend the canal to Jersey City. The enterprise was not fully financed until 1830, when a loan of $5,200,00 was assured from capitalists in Holland. This sum offered was more than five times that asked for. As a consequence, the canal stock immediately jumped to eighty-five points above par. The "ditch" was completed from the Delaware to Newark (the route as it approached this section having been diverted from the Acquackanonck region) in 1832, and immediately put in operation.

The actual cost of the canal, from Phillipsburg to Newark, was about $2,000,000, instead of $817,000, as originally estimated. The first boat to reach tide waters was the Walk in the Water with a consignment to Stephens & Condit. This was on the 19th or 20th day of May, 1832.