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|nav = }} Schuylkill Canal is the common, but technically inaccurate, name for the Schuylkill Navigation, a 19th-century commercial waterway in and along the Schuylkill River in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The "canal" was actually a system of interconnected canals and slack-water pools in the river, which is called a navigation. The Schuylkill Navigation opened in 1825 to provide transportation and water power. At the time, the river was the least expensive and most efficient method of transporting bulk cargo. It fostered the mining of anthracite coal as the major source of industry between Pottsville and Eastern markets. Mules pulled barges of coal from Port Carbon to Pottsville; to the ports of Philadelphia; and thence through additional waterways, to New York City markets. The canal eventually declined due to the rise of rail transport, and was almost completely filled in the 1950s. The two remaining watered reaches are now used for recreation. == History == The Schuylkill Navigation Company was chartered in 1815 to build a series of navigation improvements in the Schuylkill River. A waterway of was completed in 1827 linking Philadelphia to Port Carbon in the anthracite coal fields or the Coal Region of Pottsville. Combining of separate canals, often referred to as "reaches", with of slack water pools, the Schuylkill Navigation used 92 lift locks to overcome a difference of in elevation between its terminal points. The Union Canal, built between 1821 and 1828, connected with the Schuylkill Canal at Reading; the two canals combined to make a water link between Philadelphia and the Susquehanna River at Middletown. This route competed with and became secondary to the east–west divisions of the Pennsylvania Canal on the Main Line of Public Works between Philadelphia, Harrisburg, and Pittsburgh. The Schuylkill Canal also featured the first transportation tunnel in America. The Auburn Tunnel, a 450-foot (137 m) bore through a hill near Auburn, was completed in 1821, but due to increased traffic, canal modifications turned it into an open-cut by 1857.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title= American Canal Society Canal Structure Inventory - Auburn Tunnel )〕 By transporting bulk cargoes and provide water power, the Schuylkill Navigation transformed the towns of Reading, Norristown, and Pottsville into early manufacturing centers. By using the Delaware River and the Delaware and Raritan Canal, manufactured products and anthracite from the Schuylkill Valley could also reach New York Harbor. The Schuylkill Navigation system quickly assumed a monopoly position in the transportation of anthracite coal from the coal mines of Schuylkill County to Philadelphia, and by 1841, was annually transporting over 737,517 tons of cargo. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Schuylkill Canal」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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