The Delaware River Valley

The Delaware rises in two branches and flows 419 miles – 674 Km – into Delaware Bay. Its watershed drains an area of 14,119 square miles - 36,570 km² - in the five Atlantic Coast States of New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland.

Tributaries and Creeks there are 216 tributaries and 14,057 miles of streams and creeks in a watershed that is home to 4 million people and drinking water to 17 million. The Delaware River basin sustains fishing, transportation, power, cooling, recreation, and other industrial and residential purposes. With no dams or impediments on the river's main stem, the Delaware is one of the few remaining large free-flowing rivers in the United States.

The Hudson and the Delaware were originally called the North and South Rivers

History the river was first visited in 1609 by Henry Hudson and the Dutch East India Company resulting in Dutch and Swedish settlements along the lower section of river. The River was renamed Delaware in 1664, after Baron De La Warr, an English nobleman and the Virginia colony's first royal governor. With the removal of the Lenape Indians, the name has been spread to municipalities and counties in the American Midwest and Canada were the tribes resettled.

Development the Delaware River played a key factor in the economic and social development of the Mid-Atlantic region. In the 17^th century it provided the conduit for colonial Dutch and Swedish settlement followed by the Quakers in Philadelphia and the Lehigh Valley.

Canals Philadelphia’s importance as a commercial center led to improvements on the upper river; the Pennsylvania Canal running from Easton to Bristol, opened in 1830; the Delaware & Raritan Canal ran on the New Jersey side of the river while the Morris and the Delaware & Hudson Canals provided connections to the Hudson River. The Chesapeake & Delaware Canal linked the Delaware with Chesapeake Bay.

Recreation the Delaware Gap National Recreation Area resulted from the failure of a controversial plan to build a dam to control water levels for flood control and hydroelectric power generation. In 1978, environmental opposition led to a takeover by the National Park Service; surrounding communities developed recreational facilities and worked to preserve the remaining historical structures.

The Lehigh and Delaware River Valley are ideal anchor locations to visit New York City, the Hudson Valley, Philadelphia and South Central Pennsylvania.