Postcard View Looking North from Canal Bridge by Railroad Station
Raven Rock, New Jersey (1906)
Belvidere Delaware Division of Pennsylvania Railroad (Bel-Del)
View is looking north toward the canal inlet. The canal was originally a branch of the Delaware River separating Bull's Island (on the left) from the mainland (on the right). The photographer is standing on the canal bridge. The railroad tracks are out of the picture to the right where the bicycle path is located today. What appears to be an old station platform still exists behind an 8-inch high concrete wall extending for a long distance along the right-of-way for the bike path. There are partial remnents of a foundation for a small gatekeepers building located about 50-ft south of where the entrance road crosses the former railroad tracks. Today the water intake gate to the canal consists of a fairly new looking concrete structure, and the bridge over the canal is supported on large steel beams.
Silting was a "special concern" [Ref: "The Delaware & Raritan Canal" by William J. McKelvey, Jr., 1975], and a steam operated dredge can be seen in the photo. The location where the water from the Delaware River is diverted into the feeder is located about 800 feet beyond the dredge. If one was high above the site looking down, the layout today is almost exactly the same as the original plan. See Feeder Intake (Map) [Appendix H - "Report on Final Disposition of the Delaware and Raritan Canal" 1942].
Distance from upper tip of island to Canal Bridge = 4 1/2" x 800 = 3600 feet. The bypass originally intended to be used during high water to flush silt out this short upper section of the canal, appears to have been permanently blocked but there is still a ravine on the downstream side.
The postcard was written by Miss Jennie Worthington, Lumberville, Bucks County, Pennsylvania and postmarked Lumberville, Sep 17, 1906. A separate bridge to Lumberville is on the other side of the island, to the left of where the photographer is standing.
Belvidere Delaware Rail Road:
Railroad Map
Trenton to Belvidere (Along the Delaware River)
Bucks County Link:
Craven's Yardley Site (Photographs, Maps, History/Geography, Craven Biography)