The canal allowed shippers to cut many miles off the existing route from the Pennsylvania Coal Region down the Delaware, around Cape May, and up the occasionally treacherous Atlantic Ocean coast to New York City.

The idea of a canal between the Raritan and Delaware Rivers originated with William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, who suggested it in the 1690s.

Such a canal would shorten the journey from Philadelphia to New York City by 100 miles, and relieve the need for boats to venture into the Atlantic Ocean.

Randel spent two months surveying this route and, with the aid of a millwright, estimating water flow.

[3] Despite Randel's report, and the clear advantage of having such a canal, the opposition to the project managed to keep anything from happening until 1830.

The charter for the Camden and Amboy Rail Road and Transportation Company was passed the same day.

The canal's greatest usage occurred during the 1860s and 1870s when it was used primarily to transport coal from Pennsylvania to New York City during the American Industrial Revolution.

The main section of the canal runs from Bordentown on the Delaware River to New Brunswick on the Raritan.

The feeder canal collects water from higher elevations to the north, and feeds it to the highest section of the main canal, which flows generally north and east to the end, and had flowed south into the Crosswicks Creek at Bordentown.

project along the Trenton Freeway (now U.S. Route 1) to Lalor Street, while the northeastern branch was covered over and continues to flow beneath the surface.

In the words of Howard Green, research director of the New Jersey Historical Commission, "Now it is one of the most beloved parks in the state, a sinewy, snake-like greenway through one of the most heavily populated parts of the world.

The folklore endured for 30 years when, on November 23, 2002, an actual bull was found in a ditch, and was pulled out by local authorities only to be subsequently euthanized shortly afterward.