{{Use American English|date=January 2025}} {{Use mdy dates|date=August 2023}} {{Infobox canal |name=Dundee Canal |image=[[File:Dundee Canal 1997.jpg|250px]] |image_caption=Dundee Canal (right) in 1997, with [[Passaic River]] in the center. Looking southeast, with [[Garfield, New Jersey|Garfield]] on the left bank of the river and [[Passaic, New Jersey|Passaic]] on the right. The Dundee Dam with headgate for the canal is in the foreground, and the former Dundee Textile Mill is seen between the river and canal. |canal_length= {{convert|1.8|mi|km|abbr=on}} |lock_length= |lock_width= |max_boat_length= |max_boat_beam= |min_boat_draft= |min_boat_air_draft= |original_num_locks= |current_num_locks= |min_elev= |max_elev= |total_rise= |status=Abandoned |navigation_authority= |former_names= |present_owner= |original_owner=Dundee Manufacturing Company |engineer= |other_engineer= |date_approved= |date_began=1858 |date_use=July 1861 |date_completed=1861 |date_extended= |date_closed=c. 1930s |date_restored= |direction= <!--North/South, Northeast, etc--> |start_point=[[Clifton, New Jersey]] |end_point=[[Passaic, New Jersey]] |begin_coord={{coord|40.8825|-74.127|region:US-NJ_type:landmark|display=inline,title|name=Dundee Dam}} |end_coord={{coord|40.873|-74.1167}} |branch= |branch_of= |connects_to=[[Passaic River]] }} The '''Dundee Canal''' was an industrial [[canal]] in [[Clifton, New Jersey|Clifton]] and [[Passaic, New Jersey|Passaic]] in [[Passaic County, New Jersey|Passaic County]], [[New Jersey]]. It was built between 1858 and 1861 and ran parallel to the [[Passaic River]]. It supplied [[hydropower]] and water for manufacturing. There was interest by some members of the business community to modify the canal to support [[navigation|navigational uses]], but the canal was never used for that purpose. The Dundee Canal, along with the advent of [[railroad]]s, stimulated rapid economic and population growth in Passaic and the surrounding area through the late 19th and early 20th century.
==Description== The canal was about {{convert|1.8|mi|km}} long. The [[Dundee Dam]] across the Passaic River was located at the north end of the canal, between Acquackanonk Township (present-day Clifton) and East Passaic (present-day [[Garfield, New Jersey|Garfield]]), and it provided water for the canal. The dam was the lowest hydropower site built on the river, just above the [[tidal zone]].<ref name="HAER canal">{{cite web |url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pnp/habshaer/nj/nj1000/nj1000/data/nj1000data.pdf |title=Dundee Canal, Headgates, Guardlock & Uppermost Section |last=Raber |first=Michael S. |date=March 1986 |website=Historic American Engineering Record |publisher=Library of Congress |location=Washington, D.C. |accessdate=February 2, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140204031925/http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pnp/habshaer/nj/nj1000/nj1000/data/nj1000data.pdf |archive-date=February 4, 2014 }}</ref>
==History==
===Founding and 19th century operations=== <!-- Expand background: Society for Est. Useful Manufactures in Paterson, etc. -->The '''Dundee Manufacturing Company''' (DMC), incorporated 1832, built the Dundee Dam across the Passaic River c. 1833, replacing an earlier [[wing dam]] it had built c. 1830. The dam was designed to supply water power to clothing mills in the area.<ref>Conservation Resources, Inc. (2010). [http://www.conservationresourcesinc.org/dundeeDam.htm "Dundee Park Riverfront Greenway: Historic Dundee Dam."] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060616200631/http://www.conservationresourcesinc.org/dundeeDam.htm |date=June 16, 2006 }} Accessed 2011-10-03.</ref> The company also built a {{convert|12|ft|m}} deep, {{convert|0.5|mi|km}} long canal c. 1833, adjacent to the site of the later Dundee Canal. It operated the short canal for a few years.<ref name="HAER canal"/><!-- The 1830s was also the era of heightened interest in a navigational canal, to be used in combination with the river, to connect Paterson with Passaic. -->
In 1857 the [[New Jersey Legislature]] authorized the company to raise the water level of the dam, and this action flooded adjacent areas and created '''Dundee Lake.'''<ref name="NYT 18810804">{{cite news |title=Dundee Water-Power Company; Property Owners Along the Passaic Want to Enforce Its Charter |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1881/08/04/archives/dundee-waterpower-company-propertyowners-along-the-passaic-want-to.html |newspaper=New York Times |date=1881-08-04}}</ref> The flooding of various properties led to calls by area manufacturers and other community members to make the canal into a navigable waterway. This would have been an unusual combination of uses for a single canal.<!-- Expand: There were several cotton mills in the area, and there was continued interest in bringing in more raw cotton from the south, but this prospect ended with the advent of the Civil War Also by the 1850s, railroad line density in the area had increased, thereby making a navigational canal a less attractive prospect -->
The DMC, which had reorganized in 1850, built the Dundee Canal between 1858 and 1861. This canal was not financially successful for navigation, and the company went into [[receivership]] in 1864. It reorganized as the '''Dundee Water Power and Land Company''' (DWPLC) in 1872, and the company's new emphasis on supplying water and selling land was more lucrative.
The Dundee Canal's reliable water supply (both for power and manufacturing processes), and the availability of railroad service in the area (from branch lines that became part of the [[Erie Railroad]]) attracted manufacturing businesses to Passaic for the next several decades. The population in Passaic doubled between 1860 and 1880 (to 6,500). Several large textile mills were founded, including the [[Botany Mills|Botany Worsted Mills]], established in 1889.<ref name="HAER district">{{cite web |url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pnp/habshaer/nj/nj1600/nj1660/data/nj1660data.pdf |title=Dundee Canal Industrial Historic District |last1=Brown |first1=Marvin A. |last2=Scheerer |first2=E. Madeleine |date=December 1997 |website=Historic American Engineering Record |publisher=Library of Congress |location=Washington, D.C. |accessdate=February 2, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140204025059/http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pnp/habshaer/nj/nj1600/nj1660/data/nj1660data.pdf |archive-date=February 4, 2014 }}</ref> By 1900 the city population was 25,000.
With increased [[urbanization|urban development]] in the late 19th century, the canal water became [[Water pollution|dirtier]] and therefore less usable by the adjoining textile mills, but the water source was still useful for other industries, such as [[Natural rubber|rubber]] and [[Paper mill|paper manufacturing]], as well as for fire protection.<ref name="HAER district"/><!-- Expand: DWPLC transition to a real estate & water rights co. -->
===20th century=== Industrial use of the canal declined significantly during the [[Great Depression]], and woolen manufacturing also declined. The canal continued to accumulate a large quantity of trash, and in the late 1930s the City of Passaic leased a portion of the canal, installed a culvert and paved it over, for parking lots and other public uses. After [[World War II]] ownership of the canal changed several times. A group of investors bought the DWPLC in 1946, and the company was sold to the [[Hackensack Water Company]] in 1974. Much of the remainder of the canal was destroyed starting in 1997, as the moribund waterway was used to extend the [[New Jersey Route 21]] freeway and replace the old surface route over city streets. The canal bed was filled and used as a foundation for the highway from approximately its [[River source|headwaters]] to Dayton Avenue.<ref name="HAER district"/>
===Dundee Canal Industrial Historic District=== {{Infobox NRHP | name = | nrhp_type = hd | image = Dundee Canal NJ 109129pv.jpg | caption = | nearest_city = [[Passaic, New Jersey]] | coordinates = {{coord|40|52|25|N|74|7|12|W|display=inline}} | locmapin = USA New Jersey Passaic County#New Jersey#USA | nocat = yes | built = 1858 | architect = Kick, Ludwig; et al. | architecture = Colonial Revival, Functional industrial | added = January 21, 1999 | area = {{convert|66|acre}} | refnum = 98001640<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|2009a}}</ref> | designated_other1_name = New Jersey Register of Historic Places | designated_other1_abbr = NJRHP | designated_other1_link = New Jersey Register of Historic Places | designated_other1_date = November 5, 1998 | designated_other1_number = 2351<ref name=NJRHP>{{cite web | title=New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places-Passaic County | url=http://www.nj.gov/dep/hpo/1identify/nrsr_lists/passaic.pdf | publisher=New Jersey Dept. of Environmental Protection, Historic Preservation Office | page=1 | date=2011-09-06 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141016005949/http://www.nj.gov/dep/hpo/1identify/nrsr_lists/passaic.pdf | archive-date=2014-10-16 }}</ref> | designated_other1_num_position = bottom | designated_other1_color = #ffc94b }} The '''Dundee Canal Industrial Historic District''' was added to the [[National Register of Historic Places]] on January 21, 1999. The district comprises the canal and several former [[textile mill]]s, including the [[Botany Mills|Botany Worsted Mills]]; the Acquackanonk Water Company Site; and related structures.<ref name="HAER district"/>
==See also== *[[Society for Establishing Useful Manufactures]] (Paterson-based early investor in Dundee Canal) *[[List of canals in the United States]] *[[List of crossings of the Lower Passaic River]]
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *{{HAER |survey=NJ-45 |id=nj1000 |title=Dundee Canal, Headgates, Guardlock & Uppermost Section, 250 feet northeast of Randolph Avenue, opposite & in line with East Clifton Avenue, Clifton, Passaic County, NJ |photos=32 |data=43 |cap=4}} *{{HAER |survey=NJ-131 |id=nj1660 |title=Dundee Canal Industrial Historic District, Beginning at George Street in Passaic & extending north along Dundee Canal approximately 1.2 miles to Canal headgates opposite East Clifton Avenue in Clifton, Passaic, Passaic County, NJ |photos=60 |data=45 |cap=10}}
{{National Register of Historic Places in New Jersey}} {{NRHP in Passaic County, New Jersey}}
[[Category:1832 establishments in New Jersey]] [[Category:1872 disestablishments in the United States]] [[Category:1974 disestablishments]] [[Category:Buildings and structures in Passaic, New Jersey]] [[Category:Canals in New Jersey]] [[Category:Clifton, New Jersey]] [[Category:Passaic River]] [[Category:Economic history of New Jersey]] [[Category:Historic American Engineering Record in New Jersey]] [[Category:Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in New Jersey]] [[Category:National Register of Historic Places in Passaic County, New Jersey]] [[Category:Canals opened in 1861]] [[Category:Canals on the National Register of Historic Places in New Jersey]] [[Category:Transportation buildings and structures in Passaic County, New Jersey]] [[Category:Articles with WikiMiniAtlas displaying incorrectly; WMA not showing route]]