Take An Aerial Tour of The C & D Canal’s Bridges in Delaware

By
Cody Croswell …
I have spent life all of my life on the Eastern Shore. Born in southern Delaware, I know Sussex like the back of my hand, but I haven’t spent much time in Kent and hardly any time in New Castle. My current career however has my travels north occurring much more frequently than before. If you didn’t know it (and why would you ) I am a fan of bridges. Particularly filming them, so as you can imagine, I have wanted to take photos of the C&D canal bridges every time I have crossed them. Well, I finally did.

I had to run up to Newport to pick up parts for an emergency repair in Ocean City. While waiting for confirmation that FedEx delivered the parts I took the opportunity to find a side road with a pull off so I could take some pictures.

The Chesapeake and Delaware canal is 14 miles long, 450 feet wide and 35 feet deep. The C&D canal is named for connecting the Delaware River with the Chesapeake Bay thus saving 300 miles on the route from Wilmington to Baltimore. Interestingly, David Secor, A fisheries scientist at the University of Maryland even made note that rockfish use the canal on their journey from the Chesapeake to the Delaware. Talking to some local fisherman (online, full social distancing is being practiced I promise) the best time of year to fish the canal is the spring. The area I was in had quite a few anglers out and by the looks of it they were staying among the groups that they came with. It was a great opportunity to see a part of my state that I don’t usually explore. I will change that.

The video starts with the CD canal railroad lift bridge. It is a vertical-lift bridge ( A vertical-lift bridge or just lift bridge is a type of movable bridge in which a span rises vertically while remaining parallel with the deck- Wikipedia) that was built by the US Army Corps of Engineers in 1966. It is the only lift bridge on the C&D Canal. It is still in use by the Norfolk Southern railroad since they acquired ownership from the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1998. The bridge stays in the up position as the water traffic is much heavier than the railway traffic. I would love to see this bridge in action as it is just a massive piece of engineering. When a freight train plans on crossing, the engineer must radio the bridge operator 30 minutes in advance for the bridge to be lowered.

After having my fill of the railroad bridge, I moved farther west and found a tug pushing an empty barge down the river and I thought I would take a closer look. Currently named the Merrimac, this tug started life in 1968 as the Queen Bee for the D.L. Sadowski Company of Wilmington Delaware. She was built by the Berg Boat Company of Wilmington, DE.

The tug pushed the barge under the Senator William V Roth Jr Bridge. The concrete and steel cable-stayed bridge spans the CD canal with six travel lanes. The bridge was built using pre-cast concrete segments that were built in Cape Charles Va and moved by barge for completion.

I left the boat to do her job as she pushed further west under the St Georges and we both went on our merry way to pick up our cargo.

Cody Croswell