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After much bushwhacking and research, with guidance from other bushwhackers and researchers and support from the Fairmount Water Works, I have photographed the entirety of the 200-year-old Schuylkill Navigation system, or what remains. Until now there has been no such contemporary record.

At the completion of the Navigation's last short reach in 1828, the Schuylkill River was tamed from Port Carbon to Fairmount, 108 miles. After some additions and rerouting, by the 1830s there were 32 dams, 51 miles of slackwater pools, 57 miles of canals, and 120 locks. Even before the official opening of the Navigation in 1825, boats began to bring coal down from the mountains, and canals provided water power to factories. The Navigation literally fueled the Industrial Revolution throughout the watershed and beyond. Unfortunately, it also led directly to the pollution of the river, then and now the drinking water supply of Philadelphia and three other cities. The Philadelphia Watering Committee looked for other sources, but nothing else was viable but to clean the Schuylkill.

The river's recovery began with the Schuylkill Project of 1947-51, the first major government (state and federal) cleanup of an American river. Most of the dams were dismantled. Coal waste that had piled up behind them was dredged, impounded in new basins, and recycled. The river was finally able to clean itself, a huge step toward healing the ecosystem. The project buried much of the Schuylkill Navigation infrastructure.

But not all of it.

Now, as the expanding Schuylkill River Trail leads us to previously inaccessible sections of the riverbank, more of these sites may be cleaned up, commemorated, even partially restored. But many will lie neglected on private property. At the 200th anniversary of its construction, I'm documenting the abandonment of the industrial landscape that has shaped my native Schuylkill River Valley ever since the first dam was built.

All the sites are in Pennsylvania.

Frontispiece: Datestones

Frontispiece: Datestones

Head of Navigation, Mill Creek confluence with Schuylkill River, Port Carbon, 2021

Head of Navigation, Mill Creek confluence with Schuylkill River, Port Carbon, 2021

Lock 8, Second Mountain Canal, Mount Carbon, 2018

Lock 8, Second Mountain Canal, Mount Carbon, 2018

Lock 18, Landingville Playground 2017

Lock 18, Landingville Playground 2017

Scotchmans Lock 22, Auburn 2017

Scotchmans Lock 22, Auburn 2017

Coal Dirt on Towpath Trail, above Port Clinton, 2018

Coal Dirt on Towpath Trail, above Port Clinton, 2018

Rishel's Lock 25, Auburn, 2022

Rishel's Lock 25, Auburn, 2022

Capstone from Lock 27, Port Clinton, 2018

Capstone from Lock 27, Port Clinton, 2018

Blue Mountain Locks 28/29 across Kernsville Pool , 2014

Blue Mountain Locks 28/29 across Kernsville Pool , 2014

Blue Mountain Locks 28/29, 2016

Blue Mountain Locks 28/29, 2016

Blue Mountain Locks 28/29, 2016

Blue Mountain Locks 28/29, 2016

Blue Mountain Locks 28/29, 2022

Blue Mountain Locks 28/29, 2022

Hamburg Canal, Five Locks, 2020

Hamburg Canal, Five Locks, 2020

Capstones of Lock 34/35, Mohrsville, 2017

Capstones of Lock 34/35, Mohrsville, 2017

Lock 42 at Felix Dam Park, Muhlenberg Township, 2021

Lock 42 at Felix Dam Park, Muhlenberg Township, 2021

Mural on Trestle at site of Lock 47, Reading, 2021

Mural on Trestle at site of Lock 47, Reading, 2021

Heel Post Pocket, Poplar Neck Lock 49, Reading, 2017

Toll House and Capstones, Lock 51, Birdsboro, 2017

Toll House and Capstones, Lock 51, Birdsboro, 2017

Snyder's Aqueduct, Unionville, 2018

Snyder's Aqueduct, Unionville, 2018