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Thanks for tuning into Watershed Weekly! We're straying
from our previously scheduled program to offer an encore presentation
of last year's adventure on the Delaware River Sojourn.
As you may know, the Delaware is the River of the year
for 2002, and our own Alex Djordevic, who produced last year's
feature on this mighty river, has gone back out to the Delaware
this year to cover it for Watershed Weekly. Alex's new adventure
about the Delaware River will air in the upcoming weeks, so
be sure to tune in.
In celebration of Rivers Month, Watershed Weekly is traveling
around the state throughout the month of June to paddle along
on several sojourns. We'll be featuring the Delaware, the
Swattie, the Schuylkill, the Lehigh, and the Susquehanna—
so be sure to tune in throughout June and July to experience
these wet adventures.
The Delaware: A National Treasure
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Delaware, the longest un-dammed river east of the Mississippi,
is as steeped in history as it is diverse in nature. It serves
as a major source of water for big cities and heavy industry,
yet supports a world-class trout fishery. Seventeen million
people rely on the Delaware River system for water, but the
river itself is small, draining only four-tenths of one percent
of the total continental U.S. land area. Over 170 miles of
the 282-mile long river have been included in the National
Wild and Scenic Rivers System, a testament to the remarkable
improvement in its water quality.
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has visited the river and so have literary giants. Walt Whitman
discovered poetry in its commerce, describing the steam tugs
that plied it as "saucy little bullpups of the current."
Zane Grey wrote about the river before heading west. William
Penn signed a treaty with the Indians on its banks. George
Washington and his troops rowed across it, en route to a decisive
victory over the British Crown. During the Civil War, more
than 12,000 Confederate soldiers were imprisoned on Pea Patch
Island, just down river of New Castle, Del. In 1915, to meet
the war demand, the world's largest shipyard was built on
Hog Island, offshore of Philadelphia. Upstream the river flows
beneath the Delaware Aqueduct, built by engineer John Roebling
who designed the fabled Brooklyn Bridge. The aqueduct served
as a watery passage for mule-pulled canal boats. The river
empties into the Delaware Bay, which washes by old whaling
towns.
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Kuralt may have had the Delaware in mind when he wrote "I
started out thinking of America as highways and state lines.
As I got to know it better I began to think of it as rivers.
America is a great story, and there is a river on every page
of it." But it was U.S. Supreme Court Justice Oliver
Wendell Holmes who perhaps best captured the river's essence.
In a 1931 decision involving the sharing of the Delaware's
waters he wrote, "A river is more than an amenity, it
is a treasure."
The information on this page was received from the Delaware
River Basin Commission's website at: http://www.state.nj.us/drbc/
contact them for more information on the Delaware, or contact
the Delaware River Greenway Partnership at (908) 996-0230.
Greenworks Sojourn Spotlight:
http://www.greenworks.tv/sojourn/delaware.htm
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