WE DIDN'T HAVE MISSISSIPPI RIVER BOATS, OUR PLIED THE DELEWARE!

Remember those great movies where the riverboats sailed up and down the Mississippi River? Remember one of my favorite movies, "Show Boat" with lovely Kathryn Grayson and Howard Keel? Well this is just to inform you the we here in the Trenton area had a showboat of our own! Check out this information from my "NAUTICAL" folder in the Hamilton Township Public Library Local History Collection or my glover320.blogspot.com website.

1932: DEDICATING THE TRENTON WHARF "PORT TRENTON"

Did you know that a deep Delaware stretched from Delaware Bay right up the Jersey-Pennsylvania sides of the Delaware up to South Trenton? Here's a fascinating set of graphics I put together telling just a small part of the story. Ships from all over the world came here and stories from some of my amateur radio contemporaries recall going aboard some of those ships as the DVRA (Delaware Valley Radio Association) members toured the various radio rooms aboard foreign vessels. Note also in the background, Lamberton Street homes are seen and in front of those homes, the old Farmers' Market stalls are seen. An interesting and informative peak at a time when America was in the depths of the Great Depression and Trenton was struggling with the rest of the nation.

1937: WHEN TRENTON WAS A SEAPORT

Many of the you't realize that Trenton once hosted ocean-going vessels at the Trenton Marine Terminal on Lamberton Street in South Trenton. The above photo shows a huge British cargo vessel being loaded with scrap iron and steel which is en route to Japan. The Marine Terminal is long gone. Over the years, attempts have been made to deepen the Delaware from Philadelphia up to Trenton, but the efforts have been abandoned. It is my assumption that the project was never attempted due to the expense. The deepening would have been a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project.

Anonymous said...

Wonder if this ship was bringing anything illicit into town? A few years before this photo, opium was found hidden in a hollowed out portion of the base of Raby Castle's mast.

Monday, March 07, 2011

Mack said...

Hi Tom:) I always heard it was Art Hollands dream to dredge the river and make the city a seaport, but the money could not be located on a county state or federal level to do it:)

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Mike Kuzma said...

Tom: In addition to the "Marine Terminal" smaller ships, and barges would dock at the "Basin" located just below the Pennsylvania RR Bridge. These ships and barges hauled sand, and silicone for use in the famous Trenton "China" industry. These companies were lost to Ohio in the 1950's. As a kid in South Trenton, I swam and boated the Delaware from the RR bridge to "Duck Island" below the Marine Terminal. Does anyone out there other than me remember when the high retaining wall of stone was built on the Morrisville Side? This was done in the 30's, and I think as a WPA project. I attemped to post this a few days ago, but ran into problems. Regards Mike Kuzma