DESCRIPTION:
Subject: Flat Rock Dam, Schuylkill River, Philadelphia, PA
Condition: Very Good (See scans)
Back side: Divided
Circulated: Yes
Year: 1910
Publisher: Unknown
Postmark: September 2, 1910, Philadelphia, PA
"Since 1801, when Philadelphia first tapped the Schuylkill River as its water supply, maintaining the quality of the river's water has been an active concern of city officials. As industry began to encroach on the riverfront upstream from the Water Works at Fairmount, laws were passed at various times aimed at preventing pollution of the water. An 1828 Pennsylvania law, in its quaint legalese, mandated a fine of $5 to $50 for pollution “from any dye house, still house, brew house, or tan yard, or from any manufactory whatever, into that part of the river Schuylkill which is between the dam at Flat Rock [above Manayunk] and the dam at Fair Mount.” The act further forbade the dumping of dead animals, or swimming by people or dogs, in the river near the intakes of the Fairmount Water Works.
Chartered in 1815, the Schuylkill Navigation Company aimed to create a system of dams, pools, locks and canals to make the Schuylkill River navigable from Philadelphia to the coal regions more than 100 miles upriver. The navigation system used canals and locks in a simple “staircase” to bypass rocky or shallow areas in the river. Dams were built to create slackwater pools, along which barges loaded with freight and passengers were pulled by horses or mules along a towpath on the shore. In the decades following the completion of the navigation system in 1825, canal boats brought millions of tons of anthracite coal downriver, fueling the industrial revolution in every town along the way. Return trips upriver carried manufactured goods, clothing and building materials. By the mid-19th century, railroads surpassed water transportation, as they provided freight service unaffected by water level or cold weather. The last known fee-paying canal boat traveled through in 1918, with pleasure boats. Of the original 23 hand-dug canals, only a section in Manayunk and one in Mont Clare, near Phoenixville, remain today. A massive 1940s-1950s desilting project removed more than 100 years of accumulated coal silt from the river. Numerous dams remain from this system, including the Fairmount and Flat Rock dams in Philadelphia." (Attribution: http://www.phillywatersheds.org/your_watershed/schuylkill/history)
Lot #8346
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Lot #8346 | |