• Canal Society of New Jersey PO Box 737, Morristown, NJ 07963-0737; 908-722-9556 Sponsors tours, hikes, workdays, newsletter on canals of New Jersey and elsewhere. Membership.
  
  
• Delaware & Raritan Canal Coalition 1108 Princeton-Kingston Road, Princeton, NJ 08540 609-924-0714. Protects, develops, and preserves D&R Canal State Park.
  
  
• Delaware and Raritan Canal Commission Prallsville Mills, Route 29, PO Box 539 Stockton, NJ 08559; 609-397-2000; fax 609-397-1081 A state agency which plans for development of D&R Canal State Park which it manages and protects.
  
  
• Delaware & Raritan Greenway 570 Mercer Road, Princeton, NJ 08540; 609-452-0525 Land conservancy, dedicated to preservation of open space throughout central New Jersey. Walks, canoe trips especially of Hamilton/Trenton Marsh
  
  
• D&R Canal Watch PO Box 2, Rocky Hill, NJ 08553-0002; 609-924-2683 Promotes and protects D&R State Park and adjacent areas. Informs public of threats to the aesthetic, historical, recreational, and environmental aspects of the park. A membership organization.
  
  
• Delaware River Greenway 85 Old Dublin Pike, Doylestown, PA 18901 215-345-7020 Promotes public and private stewardship of land on both sides of the Delware River and its tributaries, from the Delaware Water Gap to Burlington.
  
  
• Delaware Riverkeeper Network PO Box 326, Washinton Crossing, PA 18977-0326 Monitors and protects Delaware River and environs; manages a citizen streamwatch monitoring program. Membership.
  
  
• Delaware Valley Volkssporters 22 Bridgewater Drive, Princeton Junction, NJ 08550 A non-competitive walking club which promotes physical well-being and exploration of the environment, both city and country.
  
  
• Isles 10 Wood Street, Trenton, NJ 08618; 609-393-5656 Provides technical and organization assistance to neighborhood groups for housing and open space. Field trips along D&R Canal and in local parks. Trenton's environmental watchdog.
  
  
• New Jersey Citizen Action 85 Raritan Avenue, Ste 100, Highland Park, NJ 08904 908-246-4772; fax 908-214-8385 Lobbies on environmental and conservation issues that directly affect the lives of working class people.
  
  
• New Jersey National Land Trust 22 South Clinton Avenue, Trenton, NJ 08625 609-984-1339; fax 609-984-1427 Preserves land through private donations; assures permament protection and management.
  
  
• Sierra Club, Central Jersey Group 57 Mountain Avenue, Princeton, NJ 08540 609-924-3141 A national environmental watchdog with local chapters. Hikes, canoe trips, outings, newsletter. Membership.
  
  
• Stony Brook Millstone Watershed Association 31 Titus Mill Road, Pennington, NJ 08534 609-737-7592 Watchdog and educational organization for the Millstone River and Stony Brook area; classes, field trips, Earth Day celebration, streamwatch program.

The Youth Environmental Society (PO Box 441, Cranbury, NJ 08512; 609-655-8030) produces an excellent directory of environmental resources for New Jersey. It also promotes leadership in young people through environmental action.

ENVIRONMENTAL EMERGENCIES

24-HOUR HOTLINE 609-292-7172

The City of Trenton's Department of Recreation, Natural Resources, and Culture organizes sports, games, picnics, events, concerts, mural painting, puppets, theater, and much more throughout the year, especially in summer. Youngsters could be active everyday! Check the paper, pick up a flyer at City Hall, or call them: 609-989-3628


Two Versions of the Delaware River
One version
The Delaware River is about 330 miles long, originating in the Catskill Mountains. It is fed by 216 tributaries and its watershed covers 4 states-New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware in descending order. It marks the border between New Jersey and Pennsylvania and spills into the Delaware Bay, soon to mingle in the Atlantic Ocean with waters of other rivers. For years, it was clouded by the pollution of factories and communities along its banks; today, however, it is one of the cleanest rivers in this country and provides sport, relaxation, and diversion to hundreds of thousands of people. The Delaware Water Gap in the Pococos, the cliffs of New Hope, the rapids of Trenton, and the marshland of the Bay help to define its character.

The other version
The Delaware River moves in the sounds of the seasons. It roars in blasts of cold, in the cracks of ice-jamming sheets that ricochet off its banks. It murmurs as cooling splashes on the feet of a hot summer day As the trills of songbirds and shrills of seagulls As a tickling breeze when New Jersey's air is dead as clay. It whispers as gentle rippling at outcroppings, as lapping waves on the shore, as a slithering school of shad. And it glows peacefully in the crimson stone of Trenton at sunset.

The Delaware and Raritan Canal
For well over a hundred years, Trenton was the hub for the Delaware and Raritan Canal, and, for most of every year, thronged with canal boats, barges, tugboats, mules, horses, carriages, trams, locks, swing bridges, turning basins, waste weirs, loading docks, railroad depots, locomotives, and freight cars.

Today, the scene is more peaceful, the canal winding through parks, along back gardens, and under graceful bridges. Twice, at Sullivan Way and at Parkside Avenue, it rises above the City, carried in its own aquaduct over the traffic below. Trenton is unique in having a fully preserved 19th century canal, as much an asset now as when it was built.

It was completed in two sections over 160 years ago, to carry coal and farm products from Pennsylvania's coal and agricultural lands to the densely populated cities of New York and Philadelphia. In 1834, the main canal was built, running from the Delaware River at Bordentown to the Raritan River at New Brunswick, a length of 44 miles. Within two years, a 22-mile "feeder canal" was built from the Upper Delaware to Trenton, at first to supply water to the canal from the upper Delaware, and then to supply transportation. The feeder begins at Bull's Island, about five miles north of Lambertville, parallels the river, turns into Trenton at Lower Ferry Road, and joins the main canal just beyond Old Rose Street. Here it goes underground for over a mile, then resurfaces at Mulberry Street to flow northward to the Raritan. The canal is at its highest point in Trenton, and seven locks were required to lower boats on their way to Bordentown and seven more on their way to New Brunswick. Today, the main canal south of the Old Rose Street junction is no longer maintained, though the D&R's Lock #1 at the mouth of the Crosswicks River is well marked and accessible.

Today, New Jersey can be proud that the D&R is the best maintained canal in the United States and continues to be functional. It serves as one of New Jersey's primary water supply systems; in fact, 75 million gallons of water from the canal is used each day by 2 million people in homes, farms, and industry in five counties.

Banked by its towpath and the undulating 67-mile long Delaware and Raritan State Park, the canal is a haven for hikers, joggers, birders, and people who enjoy canoing and fishing.