A friend sent along a chapter from the 1923 New York Walk Book. Abe Books describes the book as, “Suggestions for excursion afoot within a radius of fifty to one hundred miles of the city and including Westchester County, the Highlands of the Hudson and the Ramapo, northern and central New Jersey and the New Jersey Pine Barrens, Long Island, the Shawangunk Range, the Catskills and the Taconics.”
This edition includes a walk along the Morris Canal, which in 1923, was still “functioning”. I use the quotes, as it was in fairly bad shape by this time. However as the narrative suggests, it was hoped that the state would preserve it as a museum piece. Of course, this did not happen. In 1925, the aqueduct seen in this image was blown up. Here is the short chapter and map.
Thank you for this! Having grown up in Nutley NJ, which the Morris Canal glanced on it’s way from Bloomfield to Clifton and west, I have been a Morris Canal devotee for 50 years now. One of the benefits, among many, that I get by belonging to and support organizations like the American Canal Society, CSNJ, C&O CS, Pennsy Canal Society, NYCS etc is the chance to read an article like this. In a simple reading, I have been transported back almost 100 years, and find myself walking along the old girl. A bitter sweet joy. Thank you!