Millstone River - Delaware and Raritan Canal

Delaware and Raritan Canal

The Delaware and Raritan Canal runs along east side of the Millstone River for much of its length, from Lake Carnegie in Princeton, New Jersey to the location where the Millstone River empties into the Raritan River in Franklin Township, Somerset County, New Jersey. There the canal continues along the right (south) bank of the Raritan. The land between canal and river is a flood plain that generally consists of swamps, wooded areas and some farmland. A number of spillways allow water to run off from the canal into the Millstone River during periods of heavy water flow.

In Lawrenceville, New Jersey, at a site known as Bakers Basin today located along U.S. Route 1, the canal makes the few mile remaining connection into Trenton, the state capital, and then to the Delaware River.

Hence the Millstone and Raritan Rivers enabled the major shipping route between New York and Philadelphia in the early 19th century. From New York, of course, goods could be shipped north along the Hudson River and Erie Canal to upstate New York, and thence to Western Pennsylvania, Ohio, and other Great Lakes States upstream of Niagara Falls.