Lehigh

The Lehigh River descends from the mountains of eastern Pennsylvania to join the Delaware at Easton. Its valley passes through wooded ridges and a fertile lowland that became home to farms and towns. In 1741 Moravian settlers founded Bethlehem where Monocacy Creek meets the Lehigh, building a religious community with workshops and mills beside the river.

Anthracite coal from the upper valley gave the Lehigh a new importance in the early nineteenth century. The river's rough waters made transport difficult, and entrepreneurs Josiah White and Erskine Hazard undertook improvements to carry coal downstream. A navigation opened in 1820; locks completed later in the decade allowed boats to travel in both directions, linking the coal country to the Delaware and markets farther east.