Lock #6 south to Weissport

Lock #6 from the lock wall looking downstream through the lock. This canal is watered as are a goodly number of them from this point south. Lock lift was 7.7 feet.

 

Lock #6 from the canal wall at the lower end looking back upstream.

 

Lock #6 from the towpath a short distance downstream. The gates are missing and the interior wall cribbing is gone. Small trees have grown along the towpath bank which of course were not present when the canal was in use.

 

The canal looking upstream between locks 6 & 7.

 

Lock #7 from the lock wall looking south through the lock. Some of the wood cribbing is visible on the wall near the upper end where the gates would have been. The lock lift was 9.9 feet.

 

Lock #7 from the canal wall at the lower end of the lock looking across the lock to berm wall. This lock was constructed from composite rough stone with wood cribbing.

 

Lock #7 from canal level, looking back at lower end where gates would have been.

 

Lock #7 from the canal level looking back upstream at the lower end of the lock.

 

The canal looking back upstream from the towpath between lock 7 & 8.

 

This photograph shows a view of the canal that the boat captain would have had if he were looking back from whence he came.   Lock #8. As can be noted, a concrete spillway has been installed where the upper gates would have been. Other evidence of restoration are evident at the entrance to the lock and along the top of the canal walls. The house adjacent to the lock is a modernized version of the lock tender's house.   This photograph of lock #8 was taken from the lock wall looking upstream. From this angle it can be noted that a wooden spillway has been installed inside the concrete spillway in the approximate position of the upper gates.   Lock #8 from the edge of the canal looking back at the lower end of the lock. The lock lower gates are missing and the wood cribbing is missing from the walls. The lift for lock #8 was 7.9 feet. Upon leaving lock #8 the canal boat would enter the canal town of Weissport. Weissport As long as the canal prospered, so did Weissport. The primary boat yard for the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Co. was located at Weissport. Both sides of the canal became a bustling manufacturing complex. Included were a planning mill, blacksmith shop and covered dry dock. A boiler house with a steam engine belching smoke and a mule powered railway for hauling boats out of the water. Also, early Weissport offered storage sheds for metal and lumber and mules, literally hundreds of mules filled nearby stables. Weissport had 3 general stores and two coal yards. Nearly everyone in Weissport depended on the canal and the canal depended on the town. More than 8 out of 10 canal employees, except for lock tenders and boatmen, lived in or near Weissport.   Note that the three-story building, in the upper left photograph above can be seen in the older photograph of the boat yard at Weissport shown below. Only then it was painted white and had a wroght iron balcony above the entrance. John A. Ziegenfus Boat Yard Weissport, Pennsylvania   All along the canal and particularly in areas where the canal is easily accessible to visitors, the Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor Commission has placed information stations. A portion of one such station is shown above.       Continued