Delmarva Back Roads

  Robinson House in Saint Georges Saint Georges is not a stop on the  Delaware Bayshore Byway . That’s partly because it’s about 4 miles inland from the Byway (west of  Delaware City ) and partly because, unlike other towns on and near the Byway, it never made its living from the water. Water is one of the major themes of the  Delaware Bayshore Byway . But there’s a lot of interesting history here, so it’s worth a detour. Today  Saint Georges  edges the  Chesapeake & Delaware Canal , but it was founded long before the canal was built, around 1740. It was a good location for a village for two reasons. First, it was at the head of St. Georges Creek (which later became part of the C&D Canal). A mill and dam were built here. Second, it was on Delaware’s main north-south road—what was then called a King’s Highway and what’s now Dupont Highway (DE 13). Saint Georges was a good place for travelers on the highway to stop. Today you can still see at l...

  Just south of Delaware City and Fort Dupont is the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal, known locally as the C&D Canal. It cuts across the Delmarva peninsula from the Delaware River to the Chesapeake Bay, making the peninsula into a sort of island. What’s remarkable about the canal—and what makes it an engineering marvel—is how old it is. It’s one of the world’s oldest canals still in use. Construction began in 1804, and the canal opened in 1829. I can’t imagine how hard it was to build without our bulldozers or backhoes. Of course in 1829 the canal was much narrower and shallower than it is today. It had four locks (Delaware may look flat, but it isn’t absolutely flat!) Boats and barges were pulled through by mules along the canal bank. A bit of the original canal still runs along Delaware City. It’s now called the Delaware City Branch Canal or Channel. You can see how small the original canal was compared to today’s canal. One of the four original locks remains at the ea...