Hike #1012; Yardley to Mercer Mall

Hike #1012; Yardley to Mercer Mall

2/8/16 Yardley to Mercer Mall (east Trenton) with Kralc Leahcim (Lerch), James Quinn, Shane Blische, Jennifer Berndt, Dan Asnis, and Daniel Trump
Thanks to Shane Blische for photos and historic notation (in italics)

Our next hike would be a point to point between Yardley and the Mercer Mall where we’d met for several other recent hikes. I’d been wanting to do the section of some of the canals in the Trenton area while assigned to Washington’s Crossing, which at the time of my posting was still uncertain.

Lerch in a tee shirt!

Because I didn’t know the timing, I wanted to have the best quality trips posted rather than save the best for later dates.
At the start of the week, I was blindsided with shocking news: I was being transferred back to Spruce Run, in the same situation I’d been in before my transfer to Washington’s Crossing.
My stress level was debilitating. I started feeling sick immediately. All of the mess I had gone through felt like it was for nothing, because nothing would change, and I would most definitely have problems with posting the Sunday hikes throughout the Summer.
I tried everything I could think of to get out of this horrible situation. Certainly, I complain about my long commute every morning, but to return to that situation is far, far worse.
A hike is always the thing that helps me to get into a better mood. It’s hard to get back to that point even when I am hiking.
It was a hot day. About sixty degrees in February is unheard of, and to make things all the more crazy, eight to ten inches of snow were coming in the next twelve hours. I made the hike Wednesday instead of Thursday because it would be so messy Thursday and I really needed to get out so badly.
After meeting at Mercer Mall, we shuttled in James’ car north to Yardley PA area, to the commuter lot off of Interstate 95. It’s just up hill barely from the Delaware Canal.

Mile marker on the old canal from terminus at Bristol.

Delaware Canal is actually the Pennsylvania Canal; Delaware Division, part of the Main Line of Public Works, a legislative initiative created as a transportation system across Pennsylvania. The main purpose of the Delaware Division was to get coal to Philadelphia. It was completed in 1832, and even though the heyday of the canal was mid 1800s, this one lasted into the 1930s and is regarded as the longest lived of all of the canals in America. It become Theodore Roosevelt State Park, and was later renamed Delaware Canal State Park.

Yardley lock

We descended on the road on the uncharacteristically warm day. Lerch was even in a tee shirt. It wasn’t long till we reached the canal and turned right to follow it south. It was actually quite busy with joggers and walkers.
Interstate 95 had a clearing to the left of us with a single house. They apparently bought the house to demolish it, to make way for the new I-95 bridge that is to cross the Delaware at this point. The new bridge is to be a toll bridge, while the one today remains pretty much the only free limited access crossing of the entire Delaware River. The good news is that it is planned to have a pedestrian walkway.

Yardley Lock

After passing beneath Rt 95, it became a more back woods feeling place. There were some homes along the canal on the right side, but not too many. Overall pleasant.

Yardley Lock

We soon reached the Yardley Lock.
Yardley area was settled in 1682 by William yardley who purchased five hundred acres from William Penn. Yardley and his family died of small pox, and the land was then taken over by a Yardley nephew.
The area became the site of a ferry around which the original settlement was formed, and then later the Delaware Canal. It was also known to be a stop on the “underground railroad” for which runaway slaves were hidden as they escaped to northern free states. They would stay in the bins in warehouses of the Delaware Canal in this area.

We explored the lock a bit, and Shane messed with a giant blue bucket that was floating around in the turbulating waters, trying to break it free. It wouldn’t work though.
Shane had met us at the starting point, and was carrying an oversize stick in case we ran into any trouble while walking through the Trenton section.
We continued south and it wasn’t too long before we entered the village of Yardley itself. The towpath is used today as a small street which accesses several houses in the town. We continued on through, and crossed an aqueduct over Buck Creek.

Old bridge over the canal

Old industrial buildings to the right of the canal could be seen, and were rather obviously some old mills.
We got into some silly conversations about everything from Jesus to shit flavored something or other, and how they would have to call it “poop” flavor. Shane reminded me about much of this later. I definitely needed the silly talk to distract me from the rest of life’s craziness.
As we continued to the south, we passed beneath a bridge with a very low clearance where signs warned to walk your bikes. Lerch, at 6”7’ would have the most ducking to do.

Just as we reached the underpass, and Lerch posed for a photo with the “low bridge” sign, James (who is also quite tall) came through and whacked his head on the last bean with an “OWW”, with perfect timing for the photo.
As we headed to the south of town, we passed the old Lower Yardley Lock. Most of these locks today are fitted with concrete fillers that allow for gradual draining of the canal, and would not allow the locking mechanism to function without a major refit.

Buck Creek Aqueduct scene and mill

Coming into view was the former Reading Railroad bridge.
This was part of the former National Railroad System plan, which was the Delaware and Bound Brook line on the NJ side. Built in 1876, it later became a part of the Reading system.
The bridge is not the original one, but is still quite old. I’m not sure of the date of the construction of the existing bridge there. The one that crosses the Delaware is concrete arch, and the piers to the original one are just on the upstream side of it. It’s possible that the bridge over the canal could be original, but Shane would know better.

Approaching the Reading bridge

The railroad was another big boost in Yardley’s growth, even though it passed through on the south side of the town.

Reading RR bridge at Lower Yardley Lock

When Yardley first gained it’s post office, it was known as Yardleyville, but the suffix was dropped after the arrival of the railroad station and changed back to simply “Yardley”.
We continued past the lock and under the bridge, a deck truss style structure and continued through a very nice section of quite secluded towpath.
Jen met up with us when we got to Black Rock Road, which was ironically the same place she met up with us on another similar hike we were doing in the area (actually we had come further from Washington’s Crossing on that one).

Reading RR bridge

We continued on another very nice long section and the group got pretty far ahead of me. I just tried to relax and enjoy the seclusion of this last section of the Delaware Canal before we’d cross over into the busy Trenton section of the Delaware and Raritan Canal.
The towpath came close to Delmore Ave, and then passed beneath E. Trenton Ave, which becomes Calhoun Street as it crosses the Delaware River on the historic Calhoun Street Bridge. We took a little break on the PA side of it before crossing over.

Reading RR bridge

As we headed off of the canal towpath and onto the street, I approached the wrong side of the bridge to cross over. A bridge guard lady walked up and asked if she could help us with something. I let her know that we had just gone to the wrong side of the bridge to cross, and we dashed over to get on the side with the walkway.
The Calhoun Street Bridge is also the route of the three thousand mile East Coast Greenway between Pennsylvania and NJ. It’s the oldest bridge in Trenton across the Delaware River, and probably the nicest to walk as well.

Shane and the Reading Railroad bridge

Everyone was moving along at a pretty good pace leaving Dan Asnis and I at the back. I hadn’t been sleeping much, and so I was very sluggish.

Truss bridge over Delaware Canal

The Calhoun Street Bridge was constructed by the Phoenix Bridge Company of Phoenixville, Pennsylvania in 1884. It was the route of the transcontinental Lincoln Highway until 1920, when that route was moved further south to the Lower Trenton Bridge, and prior to 1940, it was also the route of the Trenton-Princeton Traction Company’s trolley tracks connecting into Morrisville.
Once on the NJ side, we had to go around the turn around a bit and continue on Calhoun Street to the north just a little. This led us to the old Delaware and Raritan Canal.

Historic postcard view of Calhoun St. Bridge

This was the feeder canal, while the main canal stretched from Crosswicks Creek near Bordentown up through Trenton, Princeton, and then to New Brunswick. The feeder, also used for navigation, went north to Bull’s Island at Raven Rock NJ. The system was completed in 1834.
We started out on the south side of the canal, but at a street crossing we went to the left and then right again to continue on more clear path. A guy out at a house to the right started hollering at us “YOU’RE GOIN’ THE WRONG WAY!!”

Delaware and Raritan Canal in Trenton

We continued a bit more and got on a section of Passaic Street just along the canal. A guy in a chair to the left said something like “Ya’ll comin’ through like Moses!” directed toward Shane.
“And you in the suit!” he said as I went by, with my brown blazer and grey, black, and beige tie. I talked to the guy, told him we were going to Mercer Mall when he asked. He was thoroughly amused at our trajectory and it’s distance, and again brought up the fact that I was wearing a suit. I said something about trying to go all out or something, he laughed, I fist bumped him, and we continued on our way. “Y'all be good now, have a good nite!” he hollered from his chair as we continued along the canal.

This is a map Shane drew of the railroad and canal alignments in Trenton

We continued walking along the canal headed to the east. In a few blocks, we came to where the old Belvidere-Delaware Railroad once crossed the canal. Shane, of course, is the expert on this line, his favorite of all of them, and we paused for a few moments for him to give us a dissertation on it’s history.

Historic photo

Rare shot of Black River & Western RR locomotive #60 on the Bel-Del crossing Broad St. at Trenton in 1970. It was heading to Penn Central's Morrisville shops for maintenance.

Shane told us the history of the Bel Del, and it’s development from Trenton to Belvidere, later to Manunka Chunk. We stood and listened to him on the old bridge that carried the “Bel Del” across the D&R Feeder Canal.

Historic photo

Northbound PRR freight train passes by MG interlocking signals by Montgomery St. in 1966. Photo by Martin Zak

From here, we crossed over the former Bel Del bridge, and then began walking some of the old towpath on the other side. The railroad was opposite, but I wanted to be further away from the roads rather than right up along side them like the railroad was at that point.

Historic tower image

This was MG interlocking block station. Not only did it control the crossing gates at Montgomery St., it also governed switches and signals in Trenton. Train orders were also filled out here so train crews knew what their assignments were. The MG interlocking was established in the early 1870s and was in operation until 1976. Photo by Bill O'Neil, from Shane Blische collection.

Historic photo

BRW diesel #7079, a GE 65-tonner heads up the Bel-Del with caboose #34. The diesel had some work done at Morrisville shops. Nelson Tower photo

Hiking the "old route" in Dec 2004!

By the time we got to Montgomery Street, we crossed back over the canal to pick up the old Bel Del Railroad bed again. The trail splits in two here. It used to be necessary to go to the left out to Southard Street to pass through at this point, then a road walk was necessary to the next canal section at Mulberry Street to the east. I have probably not walked that section since a hike I led back in December of 2004. Since that time, the trail was fully connected following the old railroad yard to the south. The Delaware and Raritan Canal is still there, but it flows underneath Rt 1 in this section for a good while. I had never walked the new connection.

Historic canal and rail crossing

This 1936 photo shows us the Bel-Del bridge crossing the Delaware & Raritan canal junction (the main canal from New Brunswick connected here with the feeder from Raven Rock and the branch to Bordendown). Route 1 passes through here now under the Bel-Del.

I recall the old rail bridge being there when we walked through, and I went out onto it, but this time it was clear and officially part of the trail. It was a treat to finally do this piece.

Historic D&R Canal image

The coaling trestle at Coalport along the D&R canal. Shane Blische collection

We hung a left once over the bridge, and were soon passing beneath Southard Street. I didn’t feel intimidated at this point walking through, but I’d not have done it alone, that’s for sure. Shane pointed out some homeless people’s tent area to the south side of the old railroad yard to the right.

Historic coalport image

The Bel-Del Coalport Yard in Trenton around 1900. The yard was built in 1856. Coal from Pennsylvania was shipped south by rail and transferred to canal barge at this yard via the coaling trestle shown in the other photo. Other trains also picked up coal cars here for delivery to factories, power plants and docks. When the canal closed, the yard remained a vital freight classification yard until it was closed by Conrail in the late 1970s. All but one track was removed in the yard in the early 1980s; that one track was kept as a loop connection between the NorthEast Corridor and the River Line to Camden. This track hasn't seen use since around 2000. Across the canal are one of Trenton's major pottery plants which was served by PRR's Enterprise Branch that came off the Bel-Del. Shane Blische collection

Historic Penn Central image

A Penn Central empty coal train waits for a clear signal at Coalport Yard in 1971. The train would then head up to Phillipsburg to transfer the empties for a loaded coal train with Lehigh Valley Railroad. Martin Zak photo

This area was the southern terminus of the Bel Del line. It was used by the Bel Del, but not officially all Bel Del trackage. I understand it was major interchange with the Pennsylvania Railroad, and some of this was the historic route of the original Camden and Amboy Railroad, our first civilian passenger rail line.

Historic Coalport image

Going further back in time, we see a PRR B-class switcher locomotive with a local freight train at Coalport getting ready to head northward in 1948. Photo by Charles Knox Freericks

We turned off to the right at one point to check out a section of rails that were still in place in the yard. Apparently they might still be passable to locomotive if necessary. Shane wanted to walk the tracks, which were only slightly overgrown, but I wanted to stay out where it was easier for a bit.

Steps

We passed beneath the Olden Ave Bridge, and continued only a short bit more until we reached Mulberry Street. From there, we turned left only briefly, and soon turned right onto the towpath of the main Delaware and Raritan Canal.
The canal emerges from beneath Rt 1, and we figured we were home free from there. It turned out I was a bit off on that after a bit.
As we walked, we came across a metal structure with steps, surprisingly not blocked off or anything, so we had to check it out. It went to a decking under a bridge, and so Shane, Lerch, and I went up. The deck was strong, so Lerch and I went to explore.

Bridge

It was very strange that all of this was in place with nothing around to say to stay off of it. We had a walk beneath the bridge, then to the other side where we got some very nice views of the lights, the roads, and the water.
It was really a cool little spot to check out. We climbed back down and continued walking, and then found a lift just parked out there. Again, nothing blocking the way at all, nothing to say that it was a construction site of any kind. It was all very strange. What made it even more strange was that I was actually able to start the thing. I can’t believe they leave these things unattended in Trenton like that. We didn’t mess with it and just continued on.

Bridge

Lerch ran off on a side trip for food or coffee or something somewhere in this area, and we passed beneath Rt 1. We continued on the towpath out to Carnegie Road.
I had started and ended two previous hikes in 2004 and 2005 at Carnegie Road, but had not done anything there since. Because this was the start and end, I did not have the opportunity to screw up because I’d either started there, or finished there. This time, it was a through hike, and we continued straight across on the old towpath. I should have known right away that this was not a good idea because it did not have the surfacing that the rest of the trail did.

Bridge

After going so far, it was really bad and overgrown, so we had to turn back.
We crossed over the canal at Carnegie Road and hiked the old Camden and Amboy Railroad bed on the other side. We followed this as far as Baker’s Basin Road, then crossed the canal yet again to the regular towpath side.
We cointinued from this point to the long pedestrian bridge that had been erected over Rt 1. For many years, this was the most dangerous spot on the entire canal, because it was necessary to dash across the busy highway to get through. We crossed, then resumed the towpath on the other side heading to the east.

Steps

The Shipetauken Creek runs on the opposite side of the towpath from the canal at this point, and we passed into an area of extreme seclusion for the final stretch.
It didn’t take very long until we passed the connecting trail to the Lawrence-Hopewell Trail, and the canal ahead was stuff we had done much more recently.
Lerch had gotten very far ahead of us at this point, and was probably already back to the cars. I was horribly tired from the day, and my mind was going nuts about work and how to deal with it.
It didn’t take too long before we reached Province Line Road.

Bridge view

On the previous hikes, we had walked through the apartment complex and gone to the Mercer Mall by way of a hole through the fence. This time, I opted instead for an easier route, southeast through the complex, then onto a paved path that skirted the east side and came out at the east side of the mall parking lot.
Lerch was of course sitting, leaned up against my car when we arrived. The wrong turn on the closed towpath section probably set us behind quite a bit.
Everyone else handled car shuttles, and I went on my own into the Shop Rite to get a bite to eat, as I’d not eaten anything really all day that I can recall.

The gruop at my car

I didn’t want anything more than a snack really, so I got a small chicken wrap snack, brought it back to my car, and layed back. No sooner did I hit my seat, I passed out.
When I woke up, it was over an hour and a half later as I recall! I had purchased an Arizona RX Energy as well as the small wrap at the Shop Rite, thankfully, and that helped to get me home.
I find that more than anything else, my stress level effects my exhaustion. It’s really amazing how much it’s been taking out of me. Distraction like hiking is so necessary, and so therapeutic, but as soon as it’s over I crash and burn. Just like when I put my mind to something on the computer; at the first idle moment I find myself nodding off.
Some might say “I can’t wait for this to be over”, but I won’t shortchange myself with that admission. Instead, I say “I can’t wait for this to work out in my favor”. Eventually, through frustration and who knows how much work, it will.