{{Use American English|date=September 2025}} {{Infobox Canal |name =Leiper Canal |image = Pennsylvania canals.png |alt =A network of east-west canals and connecting railroads spanned Pennsylvania from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh. North-south canals connecting with this east-west canal ran between West Virginia and Lake Erie on the west, Maryland and New York in the center, and along the border with Delaware and New Jersey on the east. Many shorter canals connected cities such as York, Port Carbon, and Franklin to the larger network. |image_caption = Map of historic Pennsylvania canals and connecting railroads |former_names = |modern_name = |original_owner = George Leiper |engineer = |other_engineer = |date_act = |date_began = |date_use = |date_completed = 1829 |date_extended = |date_closed = 1852 |date_restored = |len = |len_in = |original_boat_length = |original_boat_length_in = |len_note = |beam = |beam_in = |original_beam = |original_beam_in = |beam_note = |start_point = Leiper stone quarry near [[Springfield Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania|Springfield]] |original_start = |start_note = |end_point = [[Delaware River]] at [[Eddystone, Pennsylvania|Eddystone]] |original_end = |end_note = |branch = |branch_of = |connects_to = [[Delaware River]] |locks = 3 |original_num_locks = |lock_note = |elev = |elev_note = |status = Historic, abandoned |navigation_authority = }} Early in the 19th century, the '''Leiper Canal''' built in 1828–29 during the middle of the [[American canal age]] ran about {{convert|3|mi|km|0}}<ref>This is the distance from the Thomas Leiper House, 521 Avondale Road in Wallingford, Pennsylvania, to the confluence of Crum Creek with the Delaware River.</ref> along [[Crum Creek]] in [[Delaware County, Pennsylvania|Delaware County]] to its mouth in eastern [[Pennsylvania]]'s [[Delaware Valley]] carrying its owner‘s quarried products to docks on the [[Delaware River]] tidewater until 1852.
==Early days== Previously, a horse-drawn tramway, the [[Leiper Railroad]], carried stone from the quarry for 18 years before the opening of the canal.<ref name=McMasters>{{cite book | last = McMasters | first = John Bach | title = A History of the People of the United States from the Revolution to the Civil War | publisher = D. Appleton and Company | date = 1920 | location = New York and London | page = 494 | url =https://books.google.com/books?id=2bxamqeAE9EC&dq=railroad+%22Thomas+Leiper%22+date:1600-1923&pg=PA494}}</ref> The tramway was built by Leiper's father, [[Thomas Leiper]], whose request to build a canal in 1791 was denied by the Pennsylvania Legislature. However, the Legislature of 1824 were of a different mind, and were unbiased by reports of failed attempts to improve the [[Schuylkill River]] (a series of failures, back to 1764) as they were debating parts of the [[Main Line of Public Works]] omnibus transportation package of bills, and the project, once ranked a crackpot idea, was in 1824 simply stylish.
==Changing times== As it had evinced enthusiasms for toll roads connecting the far off frontier settlements to the east, or to better connect parts of the old east itself, between 1790 and 1820, as the 1820s progressed, the whole nation had entered a period of frenzied canal building spurred on by the successful effects of the commerce on the [[Lehigh Canal]] and [[Schuylkill Canal]]s; along with the ongoing construction of the [[Union Canal (Pennsylvania)|Union Canal]], [[Chesapeake and Delaware Canal]] locally expected within a few years, and [[New York (state)|New York]]'s pending completion of the [[Erie Canal]] (first section now open) even while the various [[Delaware and Hudson Canal]] projects were in the news. In light of the big projects contemplated to link Philadelphia by canal with Pittsburgh and Erie, Pennsylvania and [[Lake Erie]], the Pennsylvania general court speedily approved a second canal proposal by Thomas Leiper, and the construction project was carried out by his son.<ref>{{cite web | title = Nether Providence Through the Years | publisher = Nether Providence Historical Society | url = http://www.delcohistory.org/nphs/nether_2.htm | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20010126002800/http://www.delcohistory.org/nphs/nether_2.htm | url-status = usurped | archive-date = January 26, 2001 | accessdate = November 11, 2007}}</ref> The Leiper Canal was one of several privately funded canals such as the [[Lehigh Canal]], [[Union Canal (Pennsylvania)|Union Canal]] and the [[Schuylkill Canal]]s that operated in Pennsylvania during the same boom era as when the [[Pennsylvania Canal System]] was constructed. In 1852, the families railway was reopened and the canal and locks were eventually filled in. Completed in 1828 to haul stone in flat-bottomed boats from his quarry near [[Springfield Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania|Springfield Township]], [[Delaware County, Pennsylvania|Delaware County]], Pennsylvania, to the navigable [[Delaware River]] at [[Eddystone, PA|Eddystone]], industrialist [[George Leiper]] financed the canal based on a dream of his father, using it when completed to replace the [[animal power]]ed [[Leiper Railroad]] between 1829 and 1852.
==Configuration== [[river delta|Crum Creek's mouth]] is located at {{coord|39|51|28|N|75|19|14|W |globe:earth_type:city_region:US-PA_source:gnis|display=inline,title |name=Crum Creek mouth}}.<ref name="gnis Crum Creek">{{cite web | work = Geographic Names Information System | publisher = United States Geological Survey | date = August 2, 1979 | url = https://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic/f?p=gnispq:3:::NO::P3_FID:1172788 | title = Crum Creek | accessdate = March 20, 2009}}</ref>—and perhaps uniquely ironic in history, was in turn replaced by the same railroad in 1852 when it was refurbished and reopened with new superior and now mature railroad technology.<ref>The shortline branch became part of the B&O railroad in the 1880s. See Cites and full story in the [[Leiper Railroad]].</ref> The system, which had three [[Lock (water transport)|locks]], replaced an [[industrial railway]] built in 1810 by the elder Leiper when he failed to obtain a [[Right-of-way (property access)|right-of-way]] [[charter]] for any canal; operated by his family, the [[horse]]-drawn industrial railroad carried the families stone goods until the canal, which could carry heavier loads, received legislative blessings and was completed in 1828.<ref name=shank>{{cite book | last = Shank | first = William H. | title = The Amazing Pennsylvania Canals, 150th Anniversary Edition | publisher = American Canal and Transportation Center | date = 1986 | location = York, Pennsylvania | page = 74 | isbn=0-933788-37-1 }}</ref>
==Recognition== The [[Thomas Leiper Estate]] was added to the [[National Register of Historic Places]] in 1970.<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|version=2010a}}</ref> The Thomas Leiper House has been turned into a public museum in the well-to-do neighborhood of [[Wallingford, Pennsylvania|Wallingford]].<ref>{{cite web | title = Delaware County History: Historic Sites | publisher = delcohistory.org | url = http://www.delcohistory.org/sites.htm | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20000116045047/http://www.delcohistory.org/sites.htm | url-status = usurped | archive-date = January 16, 2000 | accessdate = January 20, 2008}}</ref>
==See also== * [[List of canals in the United States]]
==Footnotes== {{reflist}}
==External links== * [http://www.ridleytownshiphistory.com/leiper_canal.htm#CANAL The Leiper Canal] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20110717103003/http://leiperchurch1818.tripod.com/id2.html Thomas Leiper, Founder, and His Impact on Delaware County] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20081211195717/http://www.netherprovidence.org/dnn/brbTownshipProfileb/TownshipTreasures/tabid/57/Default.aspx Township Treasures: The Thomas Leiper House] * [http://www.pacanalsociety.org/index.htm Pennsylvania Canal Society] * [http://www.americancanals.org/ American Canal Society] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20080907170126/http://ww2.lafayette.edu/~techclin/canal/ncm/index.html National Canal Museum]
[[Category:Canals in Pennsylvania]] [[Category:Transportation buildings and structures in Delaware County, Pennsylvania]] [[Category:Canals opened in 1829]]