A proud dad and my terrific daughters Katrina(L) and Kristel(R)- and Benita below

Katrina and Kristel with Jim Lee, proud owner of planetender's house,
at the entrance to his tailrace tunnel at Morris Canal Inclined Plane 9 West- the longest and highest plane. According to Jim's book, it was 1,510 feet long to its summit and 1,788 feet from end to end. Weir maps and other sources show slightly different measurements. It had a grade of about 5%, and it was one of three planes with a double set of tracks. It can be seen
in Washington, Warren County, NJ

Katrina and Kristel with Jim Lee
at the bottom of his turbine chamber next to Scotch reaction turbine wheel.
The canal water dropped down the penstock, then flew out of these turbine wheel arms, and then flowed out the tailrace tunnel(see photo above, and tunnel archway is barely visible to the left of Katrina's head). The wheel is like a big water sprinkler and the reaction to the water force powered a huge drum. This drum pulled the heavy 3-inch cable to tow the cradle-car and boat up the 100 vertical-feet plane. This marvelous engineering method was used to haul up 2-ton canal boats... just one of the reasons that there is a plaque here from the ASE designating this as an Historic Engineering Landmark.
For more info see the excellent book "The Morris Canal- A Photographic History"
By James Lee.
Published by Delaware Press. Reprint 1994. . . .

Benita's freshman college photo- No link to canal yet.

Return to Ron's homepage: Home Page