OT Sayreville Canal Question

I know this isn't a canal website, but it is sort of related to railroads in the Sayreville area......

I was looking at some old maps trying to locate the Raritan River Railroad and I came across some interesting stuff. There were bunches of little railroads in the marshlands around Sayreville and on the other side of the Raritan River. I think they were used for the brick making industry. Anyhow, I'd like to know more about them.

Then I came across one map from my Magellan GPS software that shows something called the South River Canal. After poking around a bit I learned that we now call that the Washington Canal and that's the body of water where they had that huge sewage leak last year. Does anyone know the history of the Washington Canal or where I could get more information on it? Was it ever used for barge traffic? My guess is that the the canal was put in for the same reason the railroads were built in the marshes - the brick industry.

Here's the topozone link that shows this canal...

http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?lat=40. ... =-74.36139

Here's the Historic Map website.....

http://historical.maptech.com/getImage. ... g&state=NJ

Looks like it was a way to make the South River navigable by straightening the channel and avoiding the mud flats. Don't know the purpose, but South River was a manufacturing area and the surrounding countryside was agricultural.

What other parts of the Raritan River Railroad in Sayreville were you looking for? Part of their trackage still exists there , go on Jernees Mill Road, heading towards Bordentown Avenue and you will go over a crossing which was part of the old Raritan River RR, it's still used today by Conrail Shared Assets, to the left of that crossing about approx. 1/4 mile the tracks go to a wye, at that wye the train depending on route can either go back to Brown's Yard, on Bordertown Ave. If you stayed on jernees' Mill Road towards Bordentown Ave. the tracks will be on your left side, the old Gillespie Branch of the RRRR. The tracks cross Borden town Ave. into Browns Yard. The South River is actually between the Raritan River and Washington Canal, it's actually listed on a nautical chart ,for the Raritan River. Nautical charts have different numbers for each chart. I forget the numbers for the Raritan River charts. in the town of South River, go down Whitehead Avenue, where you will cross over tracks, these are the same tracks mentioned earlier in this message. In that area there were at one time trackage for that area along the Washingto Canal.
About seven years ago the South Amboy Public Library had a copy of book written by Fred Diebert (deceased) about the Raritan River RR, has alot of good info in it. You can't take the book out of the library. Hope this has helped you Sometimes Hagstrom's maps still show rail lines Steve Coraggio [email protected]

The tracks I mentioned last nite that cross Jernees Mill Road also cross over the Washington Canal, this bridge at one time still had the faded RRRR symbol in white paint on it. The bridge is between the towns of Sayreville and South River, was part of the old Raritan River Railroad.
If you are able to find and read Rails up The Raritan "A History of the Raritan River RR, written by the late Fred Diebert, the book is out of print. At one time the South Amboy Public Library had a copy of this book, in there is a system map dated Dec.31, 1947 showing the map of the rail lines. I have a photocoy of that book, and from the map the rail line you mentioned last nite was called the River Branch. Those tracks are no longer there. Again I hope this information is of help to you Steve Coraggio [email protected]

I did some web research on my own and found that the Washington Canal was built to serve the Sayre and Fisher Brick Company in Sayreville. S&F was the largest brick yard in the world and went out of business in the 70's. The canal and a few small railroads were built to serve the clay pits and brick company - most are defunct, but the canal is still there and serves as a bypass for the South River which winds through the marshes in that area.

As mentioned, recently they built a large regional sewage treatment plant on the canal which connected to the line that burst last summer. It looks like the canal and what's left of the railroads might be worth exploring via kayak when the weather gets a little better. Does anyone know of a good launch spot around the Washington Canal for boat, kayak or canoe?

Here's a link on S&F....

http://www.njhm.com/sayre&fisher.htm

CDG,

FYI, if your interested in reading "Rails Up the Raritan", there is a copy available in the Highland Park Library (on North 5th ave, across the street from the HS).

Maybe these older maps can help.

http://www.raritanriver-rr.com/Maps/RRR ... _1950s.jpg

The top left hand corner shows some of the canal and where the Raritan River Railroad's Sayreville Branch extended into Sayreville to serve the old Sayre & Fischer Brick yards. We explored this entire area in our last RRRR field trip last fall.

The area to the south of the old Powerplant is a park today at the end of River Road, and just south of that are town houses (with a great view of the river, and the garbage dump accross the river). You could probably launch a boat from that park.

Read through our RRRR Field Trip 3 notes:
http://www.raritanriver-rr.com/RRRRFieldTrip3.htm
Check out Map12. Its a 1930 Army Core of Engineers Map which shows a more detailed map showing how the RRRR tracks went all the down to the Washington Canal.

and here:
http://raritanriverrailroad.com/rrrfld3.htm

Look for our references to S&F. There is a really neat building in the area that used to be the S&F Reading Room, what ever that was?. They saved the smokestack too which was real nice!

Oh yea, wanna know why they called it the Washington Canal? That was South River's original name! Not sure when they changed it though...

Also, if you can't make it to the library to find Fred's book...look here:
www.raritanriver-rr.com/RUTR.htm

www.raritanriver-rr.com