Inland: The Abandoned Canals of the Schuylkill Navigation with Sandy Sorlien

Photographer and urban planner Sandy Sorlien will present photographs, maps, and drawings from her upcoming book, Inland: The Abandoned Canals of the Schuylkill Navigation. (Fall, 2022)

A Philadelphia native and longtime Manayunk Canal neighbor, Sandy is an Environmental Photographer and tour developer for the Fairmount Water Works. Starting in 2014, she bushwhacked the entirety of the 108-mile, 200-year-old Navigation system, documenting the stone ruins of locks, dams, and aqueducts. She’ll show some of these hand-built works, most from the 1840s. She will also address the Navigation’s role in the Industrial Revolution, as canal boats brought anthracite coal from Schuylkill County to tidewater at Philadelphia. The dams, development, and coal waste caused a pollution disaster requiring a major river cleanup, which buried many of the historic sites – fortunately not all of them. Sandy's project has been supported by the Charles E. Peterson Fellowship Fund of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia.

#schuylkill #schuylkillriver #river #environment #nature #adandonded #waterworks #philly #philadelphia #pennsylvania #industrialrevolution #aqueduct #naturalhistory #environmental #fellowship #anthracite

[lt.frankdrebin]

Wonder if Sandy ever visited the Peacock locks on the Duncan Canal just south of the Peacock rail bridge. It's a double lock combination and (at least in 1997 when I visited) were totally intact. Even some of the wood planking was still present. Also, the rock cut on the Duncan Canal north of Cross Keys Rd.

[PotentialAutist]

Hi Sandy! Great presentation! It sounds like you hinted that there might be some efforts to preserve or restore these ruins. I too worry about their preservation and would love to be a part of an effort to restore part of the system.

[louismeuler]

Amazing work about documenting history that will likely come back around this next century. Read more to figure all this out :) Stay safe everyone.