Delmarva Back Roads

  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...

We started our tour of the Delaware Bayshore Byway this past weekend with a quick drive through Delaware City, checking out just a handful of the many amazing historic buildings there. Delaware City's history is inextricably linked to the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal. The city was laid out in 1826, when the C&D Canal was being completed, to serve ships and passengers traveling the canal between the Delaware and Chesapeake Bays. It was envisioned as a true city, hence the name, with Clinton Street a wide boulevard named after the founder of the Erie Canal.  The oldest building we saw was Fairview, 701 Cox Neck Rd, built for a landowner around 1822, so it’s older than Delaware City. The third story and chimneys were added around 1885 by Frank Furness, a highly regarded Philadelphia architect whose designs include the Wilmington train station and the Old Library in New Castle. To our eyes, the third story doesn’t fit with the rest of the house, showing that even the best archit...