Hike #1452: 11/11/21 Washington Crossing/Trenton/Morrisville Loop with Shane Blische, Deidre Supple, and Everen
This next one would be another weekday loop with my son, and I got a hold of Shane first to see if he was interested in wandering it with me.
I had a loop I wanted to do using the Delaware Canal in Pennsylvania and more of the Belvidere Delaware Railroad and Delaware and Raritan Canal in New Jersey. Deidre had been working at D&R Canal State Park at the time, so she was around the area often and familiarizing herself with it, so she joined in later as well.
For this one, we started at the Washington Crossing Historic Park in Taylorsville PA. The town of Taylorsville dates back to before the American Revolution, but a lot of people just forget about it because it's been eclipsed on notoriety by the fact that Washington crossed the river in proximity to it.
We had already done sections to the north of this point, and flooding had damaged some of the stuff north of Lambertville so it was closed. I wanted to try to bring Ev in his jogger stroller (courtesy of Annika) on as much of those passable trails as I could, as long as he was in it.
We got into a thing where Ev had doctors appointments and such, and I had plenty of benefit time, so I would take off the days of these appointments, schedule them for as early as possible, and then head out to hike with him.
Some of these days were solo, or if it was rainy, we'd drive around and then do short walks in certain places. Other times, I would reach out to friends and see who might be interested in joining.
We headed south parallel with Taylorsville Road, passed beneath a farm bridge overpass, and continued on to the Houghs Creek Aqueduct. It was a concrete structure to replace the original wooden trunk structure that certainly came first.
We continued on to the south, and the autumn foliage was absolutely stunning. The air was clear, and the sun was just the right brightness for perfect ambiance.
Soon, we passed beneath the Goat Farm Bridge. This is one of only a few authentic camelback truss bridges still spanning the Delaware Canal.
Most will just zoom beneath these historic bridges, which were once the standard for canal crossings on the Delaware Division, and almost understandably so because even the modern bridges are affixed with the painted red camelback style trusses for ambiance. They just don't bear any weight.
A closer look at all of the newer bridges reveal that they are concrete or I-beam.
We continued along to the south and passed beneath Mt Eyre Road. Beyond that, there are stone ruins to the left of the towpath. I think they might have been that of a spring kitchen or something, but I'm not sure. It could have even been the abutment for an earlier bridge, but it's just too hard to say.
It was a pleasant walk to the south through more woods, and hardly anyone around. I didn't realize it at the time, but it was because the trail was closed just a little bit to the south.
We soon passed beneath another historic truss bridge, a Queen Post truss known as the Milk House Bridge, which looked similar to the previous one we had gone under.
In this nice secluded stretch we came across the next lock, Lock #7, which was also known as Borden's Lock. What was likely the former lock house was still standing to the left, and I think lived in.
Once we got to Woodside Road, there were workers in the middle of the towpath straight ahead. I had not checked to see what was open really or what was not, but I had a notion that it might be closed and that we might have to circumnavigate in order to get back over to it a bit to the south.
Fortunately, things worked out more in our favor. They were only working a bit for a short stretch.
The group of workers stopped their machines and allowed us to go by. Their work was in preparation of the grand opening of the pedestrian walkway over the new Interstate 95 bridge over the Delaware.
There was a new foot bridge to the right that led to a historic home that was going to be part of a new comfort station, and then out to the Yardley Park and Ride which is a spot I've met to do many hikes.
We continued ahead and beneath the 95 bridge, then south toward the town of Yardley.
In this stretch, equally as peaceful as the previous one, we came across old Lock #6, which is also known as Lear's Lock. I don't recall their being a lock house still standing for this particular one.
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| Lock 7 |
As we reached the main settlement of Yardley, there were homes right on the towpath. The towpath here doubles as a driveway to these homes, which makes for a different ambiance. Some side streets came in from the left, and we soon passed beneath Afton Avenue. After that was college Avenue, followed by Letchworth Avenue, which was a concrete superstructure onto which was affixed old pony trusses.
We continued south from Yardley proper, and then came to Lock #5, which was known as the Yardley Lock.
This one appears that it might have been a double lock, but only one is restored well.
Just ahead of this was the former National Railroad crossing. The bridge that stands now was built by the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad to replace the earlier one over the Delaware. On the NJ side, it was the Delaware and Bound Brook Railroad which was operated by the Reading.
We continued beneath this bridge, and passed along a particularly beautiful section of the canal. Deidre caught up with us somewhere in this area to continue the loop with us. She had gotten on her bike and headed along the same way that we did, and she was also able to get around the construction area without a problem.
There are side trails in this area I really want to try to incorporate into future hikes if at all possible, but I've not tried to explore them yet. The first one, right after the railroad bridge, goes to the Macclesfield Park. Another connection leads into a development to the east.
After crossing Black Rock Road along the towpath, the left side is a wetland and public land which is now apparently known as Widewaters Park. It has a series of trails in it that are apparently used for mountain biking, but would probably make for a particularly interesting hiking route. I need to get around to that one as well.
We crossed over Ferry Street next, and then made our way to the PA side of the Calhoun Street Bridge over the Delaware. This would be our turn around point.
The bridge is a through truss structure built in 1884 by the Phoenix Bridge Company of Phoenixville PA. The bridge was once part of the transcontinental Lincoln Highway, which was later rerouted. It now has a more recently refurbished pedestrian walkway that serves as part of the East Coast Greenway.
We crossed and continued on Calhoun Street into Trenton to the north, and then reached the Delaware and Raritan Canal. This was actually the feeder canal that was also used for freight. It broke away from the main canal in Trenton and traveled to Bulls Island while the main went to Bordentown.
We continued north on the towpath and went by a large Sycamore I've always enjoyed seeing. We then continued on the towpath northbound, which took us to Prospect Street where we switched sides of the canal.
It wasn't too far after this point that the towpath joins the former Bel Del Railroad bed, built here in the 1850s. The towpath originally was on the west side of the canal, but was switched to the east side of the canal when the railroad is built.
When people hike these sections and say they are "hiking the towpath", on the section from Trenton to Frenchtown, it's really quite false. With the exception of a couple of short bits, the trail is almost entirely the rail bed and often is too far from the edge of the canal to have ever even been a towpath. It was also only the towpath for less than twenty years of its service, because the railroad arrived early on too. Finally, the fact that the canal never went further than Bulls Island, but the trail continues all the way to Frenchtown is very bothersome because people tend to think they're walking the canal and they're not.
We crossed over Hermitage Ave, and then continued on to cross over Parkside Road on a concrete aqueduct built in 1910 adjacent to Cadwalader Park.
Just a bit ahead, there is a foot bridge over the canal into the park itself.
This land was formerly the farm of Thomas M. Cadwalader, who sold a strip of his land for development of the canal in the 1830s. He made sure to keep a bridge on the land, which had a swinging function in case boats went by, so that he could also access his farm land he still had on the west side of the canal.
In 1841, the 148 acre property was purchased by Henry McCall, who constructed his mansion above the canal. "Lovers Lane" was a road and bridge over the canal that traveled up a tree lined land to the manicured property on the other side.
The McCall property was sold to the City of Trenton for the development of Cadwalader Park in 1888. Hundreds of trees were planted here to block the view of the bus transportation corridor of both the canal and adjacent Belvidere Delaware Railroad.
Despite the efforts to keep these things separate, the draw of the canal was unavoidable, and the park was used by patrons. A dock was even installed.
Further, the Bel Del Railroad began operating a station stop for Cadwalader Park in 1903. It was a shanty structure, just a simple shelter that served for many years, but I believe this one was out of service earlier than passenger service on the rest of the line, which ended about 1960. The tracks continued in operation until the early 1980s when they were removed and the state park developed.
We took a side trip up into Cadwalader Park, and I found a bench where I could stop and give Ev another diaper change. It was a bit cooler at this point, and I wanted to get him changed as quickly as I could so he wouldn't get too cold. Fortunately, it was an easy change, and once I got him wrapped back up again, I picked him up and wrapped my blazer around him to keep him warmer.
I used our break opportunity here to take some then and now photos around the park.
There were some nice interpretive signs added to the park which we checked out, and I got more historic photos off of them to try to emulate, and did.
We continued back to the foot bridge and headed across to continue north.
The walk ahead was beautiful, and we crossed another aqueduct over Sullivan Ave.
A bit after this, there were some abandoned buildings that I tink were associated with hospital grounds to the north. I don't remember all of the details, but I think Shane had something to say about this place.
The Trenton Country Club was located just across from us at this next point, and it was a pleasant section out to Lower Ferry Road where there was an old deteriorating concrete spillway and some sort of old guard gate mechanism on the canal.
Just a little bit past this, we went beneath the former Philadelphia and Reading Railroad bridge, as we had over in Yardley, and took a short break while Shane gave us some history. We then continued out toward Wilburtha Road crossing.
It is rather little known, but there was once a station stop on the Bel Del at this point. I hadn't noticed before, but there was even a sign with a photo of the site. There is an abandoned house at this crossing that once served as offices for an adjacent quarry company.
The house has been in bad shape and has paint marks either for condemnation or for demolition. I'm not sure if the state owns it or what. We had gone in the building several years ago and Lerch came out with a lab coat. I came out wearing a blazer that I used for a while before eventually giving it away.
It will probably not last all that much longer, so I tried to get plenty of photos of it.
I have a feeling that the house, which looks older and not exactly the style one would imagine would be built for a quarry office, might have originally been a bridge keepers house associated with the canal and predating the railroad. It does look like early 1800s style building.
We continued and crossed Upper Ferry Road next. Not far after that is the underpass of Interstate 295 and its access ramps, followed by Rt 29. Just beyond there, we saw the all new ramp that reaches to the rail bed from the bridge.
This was the new Scudders Falls Bridge that had just opened up to replace the older one that wasn't really even all that old. The new walkway was scheduled to open in the very near future, and there were work trucks and people around all beneath the highway as we went by. They were actually doing a lot more work than was being done on the Pennsylvania side, and the fact that they had vehicles parked down there surprised me that the NJ side was open and the PA side was closed.
Aside from the river access just above the highway bridge, there are no more bridges over the canal from this point to Washington Crossing, so it was a splendid and secluded route on back to the north.
Along the way, I set up one more then and now compilation of a photo looking north along the railroad, with the Washington Crossing Bridge in view.
We continued north to Washington Crossing and passed the former station site there, and rather than just go across the bridge, I decided I wanted to try to walk up over the foot bridge over Rt 29, which leads to Washington Crossing State Park, to see if it would give me the correct angle for another then and now compilation.
There was an old postcard photo looking at an angle toward the Washington Crossing Bridge, which featured the train station and the old Nelson House.
The Nelson House was an historic home that stood along the tracks and the Delaware River, built in 1850, the same year the railroad arrived. It was a huge sort of Victorian style home right across the street from the station with double A frame peaks in the front.
Unfortunately, the home was badly damaged by a train derailment at some point in the early 1900s.
The house was still standing full size in the early 1900s, but somewhere before the 1940s, it looked as it does now. Only a small annex section of the original house remains today, used sometimes for programs by the state park. It's really just a sort of kitchen section.
After this, we headed down to cross the bridge.
The Washington Crossing Bridge is a six span Warren Through Truss completed in 1904, and the third bridge to cross the Delaware at this same site, on the same piers. The original was a covered bridge built in 1834, and washed out in a flood in January 1841. The second bridge, built that year, lasted until the Pumpkin Flood of 1903 when it was destroyed.
We headed over the river, and made our way back to where we started to finish out a very lovely loop.
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