Lehigh Canal: Eastern Section Glendon and Abbott Street Industrial Sites

Along the Lehigh River in Easton, the eastern section of the Lehigh Canal runs from Hopeville to the point where the Lehigh meets the Delaware. Construction began in 1819 and through navigation opened in 1829, with commercial traffic ending in 1931. The section includes locks 46, 47 and 48, guard lock and dam number 8, a chain bridge built in 1856-1857 by E. A. Douglas, and several lock keepers' houses. Canal boats were mule-drawn and carried mostly anthracite coal, often 80 to 100 tons per load. Beside the canal, three industrial areas grew up. The Glendon Iron Works, begun in 1843 by Charles Jackson, Jr. of Boston, had four blast furnaces. The Lucy Furnace and the Abbott Street area, with mills, a wire factory, a cotton factory and a rifle factory, were also active through the nineteenth century. Only foundations and ruins survive at these sites today.