Description
Duess tells the story of Pennsylvania waterway and the coal mines it was built to serve. She surveys other canals around the world to set the context, then looks at such aspects as locks and their keepers, the mules, human cargo, the canal's worst enemy, and the national historic landmark. Annotation ©2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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Vault aboard a hinge boat with Marie Duess as she nimbly navigates the historic waters of the Delaware Canal. Any ramble along the now-serene Pennsylvania waterway will show you why its beauty inspired so many famous brushstrokes. But only on a voyage with Duess will you dock at hidden places that doubled as underground railroad stops and Prohibition-era speakeasies and witness the inventive genius of Josiah White and the instinct and muscles of the endearing mules that hauled the nation into the Industrial Revolution. By journey's end, you will be reluctant to part with your newfound boatmates after looking into the hopeless eyes of five-year-old mine laborers and listening to the rousing choruses of boat captains who poured a hearty lifetime into steering coal from Easton to Bristol.
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