Along the Delaware

Delaware River at Lambertville, NJ

My life's dream was to live beside a river. But a recent biking trip along the Delaware may have changed my mind.

Rivers have a powerful mystique - they are ever changing and yet eternal. When placid, their gentle ripples reflect the sun and sky. Within hours, they can become brown torrents, roiling and treacherous, that destroy everything in their path. What could be more fascinating than to witness such things first hand, day after day?

The Delaware doesn't seem to have any nicknames, unlike the Mississippi River, which has collected a number of handles like "Big Muddy" or "Ol' Man River" or "The Mighty Mississippi." No, this river is simply called "the Delaware."

The facts: 

The Delaware is the longest un-dammed river in the United States east of the Mississippi, extending 330 miles from the confluence of its East and West branches at Hancock, N.Y. to the mouth of the Delaware Bay where it meets the Atlantic Ocean. The river is fed by 216 tributaries, the largest being the Schuylkill and Lehigh Rivers in Pennsylvania. In all, the basin contains 13,539 square miles, draining parts of Pennsylvania (6,422 square miles or 50.3 percent of the basin's total land area); New Jersey (2,969 square miles, or 23.3%); New York (2,362 square miles, 18.5%); and Delaware (1,004 square miles, 7.9%). Included in the total area number is the 782 square-mile Delaware Bay, which lies roughly half in New Jersey and half in Delaware. 

-- The Delaware River Basin Commission

I often travel along the Delaware on my way to upstate New York. If the river is low, new islands stand exposed in the middle of the riverbed. If the river is high, muddy water washes through the trees and up into the back yards of the houses I can see across the way.

A subconscious conversation hums in the back of my mind as I drive my route. If I think about it, I realize I'm checking to see how well the houses nearest to the river have survived over the years. If they date from the Nineteenth Century, I figure they have seen a fair bit of high water in their lifetime and yet have survived. I notice what steps their owners have taken to keep them intact: evidence of flood damage repairs; newly elevated buildings; solid retaining walls. “That’s where I would live,” I murmur smugly to myself when I spot a place that appears unassailable, sure that property is the answer to a long and happy life on the river.

The small towns along the Delaware River are charming. Lambertville, one of the most intact, has filled many of its historic storefronts with antiques, home décor, restaurants, bed-and-breakfasts, and other upscale establishments. Every year, the annual “Shadfest” draws thousands of visitors, in addition to the usual crowds of summer day-trippers. Stockton and Frenchtown – albeit more modest in scale than Lambertville – also flourish mostly in the summer but are still real places to their year-round residents. Kayaking, biking, hiking, fishing, boating, shopping, eating – all great summer sports take place in these towns along the Delaware.

New Hope, PA, on the Delaware River.

Both sides of the river have historic canals and towpaths now maintained as state parks with bicycle/hiking trails. The feeder canal of the 70-mile Delaware & Raritan Canal system follows the river on the New Jersey side. In Pennsylvania, a 60-mile towpath follows the former Delaware Canal.  Each has its own distinct character.

Along the east bank of the Delaware, the tow path follows the state parklands through the communities of Lambertville, Stockton, and Frenchtown. It passes, for the most part, through heavily wooded areas somewhat elevated from the river. In the few areas where you pass near a settlement, a few of the newer houses are on pilings, elevated some 20 feet above grade. It seems impossible to think that the river would ever come up that high.

On the Pennsylvania side, much of the tow path passes through farmland and along the rear yard fences of some lovely vacation retreats on the canal. They are not elevated, to any great degree, and have beautiful, well-tended gardens. Many seem a fair distance from the river.

Although living by a river always has its share of dangers, recent years have brought more floods to the Delaware than anticipated. In 2004, 2005, and 2006, floods caused significant damage to a number of towns in the Delaware River Basin.

As recently as March 2011, flooding damaged significant sections of the towpath on the Pennsylvania side of the river, breaching the canal wall. Our recent bike tour followed the D&R towpath from Lambertville to Frenchtown, NJ, returning along the Delaware Canal on the Pennsylvania side of the river. Although the route on the New Jersey side was in excellent condition, the western bank showed dramatic evidence of the recent flooding, especially just north of the hamlet of Lumberville, PA, where the river jogs eastward - a point where the river had to clamber overland in its straight-line rush towards the Delaware Bay. Major repairs were clearly underway, but the towpath is still in rough shape, which prevented us from exploring this side of the river extensively. The canal is dry, logs and limbs brought down the river are lodged in trees, and houses we saw along the canal there have muddy feet – their canal-side gardens bore evidence of a recent high-water mark. Those with minimal damage have substantial stone or concrete retaining walls on the river side.

Lumberville-Raven Rock Pedestrian Bridge

We stopped for coffee in Lumberville, much of which is within a National Register-listed historic district along River Road. We asked the owner of the Lumberville General Store (1803) (great coffee and biscotti, by the way) how she had fared in the recent floods. She confidently said, “Oh, we’re up too high. We never get flooded.” The same providential siting has benefited the Black Bass Hotel across the street (shown in photo at right in background). This inn was built in the 1740s and still keeps an elegant watch over the Delaware River, just south of the pedestrian bridge over to Bull’s Island State Park. “However,” the store owner warned, “I think you might want to cross over to the Jersey side here – the tow path below Lumberville was washed out last month and is not ready for cycling yet.” Sure enough, when we looked over the railing on the way back to NJ, a large gouge taken out of the bike path had recently been stabilized by rough fill of orange clay and gravel. 

Although my romantic idea of living by a river still persists, the exigencies of preparing for these “significant flood events” – the number of which seems to have increased over the past few years – is enough to dissuade me from actually plunking down my money on a riverfront property. It's one of life’s turning points, I suppose, when practicalities outweigh romance.

Nothing, however, should dissuade anyone from visiting these delightful river towns and enjoying days on both sides of the Delaware. The area is one of New Jersey’s “10 Best.” And as for NJ's neighbor across the way, Pennsylvanians have chosen the Delaware as the 2011 River of the Year, according to a recent news release of the PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.

So, even if you don't live on the Delaware, you can still enjoy every minute of your stay. It's an amazing place.

The New Hope-Lambertville Bridge over the Delaware R.

Resources:

The Black Bass Hotel. Website. URL: http://www.blackbasshotel.com/ accessed May 18, 2011.

Borough of Frenchtown, NJ. http://frenchtown.com/

Borough of Stockton, NJ. URL: http://www.co.hunterdon.nj.us/mun/stockton.htm

City of Lambertville, NJ. Official website. http://www.lambertvillenj.org/

D&R Canal History, Delaware and Raritan Canal Commission, official website: URL http://www.dandrcanal.com/history.html, accessed May 18, 2011.

The Delaware River Basin Commission. "The Delaware River Basin." Official Website. URL: http://www.state.nj.us/drbc/thedrb.htm accessed May 22, 2011.

The Lumberville [PA] General Store. Website URL: http://www.thelumbervillegeneralstore.com/ accessed May 18, 2011.

“Lumberville-Raven Rock Pedestrian Bridge.” The Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission. Website. URL: http://www.drjtbc.org/default.aspx?pageid=83 accessed May 18, 2011.

Pennsylvania, State of, Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. “Delaware Canal State Park - Park Field Guide.” Pennsylvania State Parks. Website. URL:

http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/stateparks/parks/delawarecanal/delawarecanal_fieldguide.aspx accessed May 18, 2011.

--- "Pennsylvanians Choose Delaware as 2011 River of the Year." News Release. 13 January 2011. URL: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/pennsylvanians-choose-delaware-as-2011-river-of-the-year-113453869.html

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Philadelphia District. “Delaware River Basin Comprehensive Study - Interim Feasibility Study for New Jersey.” U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Website (Updated to 02-Feb-2011). URL: http://www.nap.usace.army.mil/Projects/delbasin/ accessed May 18, 2011.

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