What's In A Name: D&HCCo stands for Delaware and Hudson
Canal Company, whose canal and gravity railroad ran between the Lackawanna
Valley in Pennsylvania and the Hudson River.
Hands Before Machines: The 108-mile long D&H Canal and the
16-mile long D&H Gravity Railroad were built by hand and horsepower.
Big Business:
 The D&H Canal Company was one of the country's
first million-dollar private enterprise.
Engineering Feat: The D&H transportation system was an astonishing
engineering accomplishment that was constructed under the direction of some
of the best minds in early nineteenth-century America. John Roebling, who
later designed the Brooklyn Bridge, designed and supervised the construction
of four aqueducts to carry the D&H Canal over rivers. The Delaware Aqueduct
(now known as the Roebling Bridge) at Lackawaxen, PA, is the oldest existing
suspension bridge in America.
A Family Business:
 Canal
boats were frequently operated by families, who lived on the boats during
the shipping season. The mules that pulled the canal boats through the system
were often led by the children of the family. The trip from Honesdale to
Kingston, at one to three miles per hour, took between seven and ten days.
Opening Up The Region: During the 70 years that the D&H
transportation system was in operation between Carbondale and the Hudson
River, many villages, towns, and cities were founded and/or developed along
the line of the D&H canal and railroad, and a wide range of products
were shipped to market through this transportation system.
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