Manayunk Canal Bicentennial 2019

LAST WEEKEND for the canal exhibition, Fairmount Water Works. Fri-Sat 10-5, Sun 1-5.

Happy Spring! Here are your Canal Bicentennial Events for the season: Exhibition, Video Reception, and Tour. These are all at the Fairmount Water Works.

TOMORROW Saturday it’s Toll Day at Lock 69/70, short tours at 9:15 and 11:15. Just show up!

Thank you to everybody who came out to Venice Island last night, sharing insights about the past, present, and future of the canal, and enjoying food and libations at the Manayunk Brewing Company afterwards. A great crowd! Hope to see some of you Saturday for short tours of Locks 69/70 at 9;15 and 11:15

Good morning Canallers! We have a lot of buzz going around Wednesday's speaker's forum at VI-PARC. Come a little early, seating is limited. There are six handicap seats, so if you need one reserved, send us a message. Parking (fee) in the lot next to the building.

Our speaker's forum is next Wednesday at VI-PARC and our exhibition is up at the Fairmount Water Works Interpretive Center starting March 17. (The reception for that is May 2, hang in there.) And don't forget the Lock-to-Lock Fun Run with Manayunk Beer Runners on Saturday the 16th! Rain, Snow,or Shine!

So glad the Manayunk Canal is still with us, but we mourn the loss of the Fairmount Canal six miles downriver. Here is an engraving done the year it opened,1824. Maybe the steamboat is full of celebrants! Image courtesy of PWD Archives.

Have you seen this view from the Schuylkill River Trail out near Shawmont? It's Lock 68 of the Schuylkill Navigation. The Manayunk Canal is the only section of the entire 108-mile Navigation that still has intact lock chambers at both ends. No wooden gates left, though.

Great lineup of Speakers for next Wednesday's Bicentennial Forum at VI-PARC! Come hear how the Canal was saved from expressways and parking lots in the 1970s. Many of the canal saviors will be in attendance! This picture shows stabilizing work being done on Lock 69/70 in 1978 or 1979.

The Sluice House at Lock 68 burned in 1973. That would explain why it doesn't have any roof today, and the walls are collapsing. Photo courtesy Adam Levine/PWD.