Which did construction start on first, the Delaware and Raritan Canal or the Pennsylvania Canal?
Delaware and Raritan Canal The Delaware and Raritan Canal (D&R Canal) is a canal in central New Jersey, United States, built in the 1830s, that served to connect the Delaware River to the Raritan River. It was intended as an efficient and reliable means of transportation of freight between Philadelphia and New York City, especially coal from the anthracite fields in eastern Pennsylvania. Before the advent of the railroads, the canal allowed shippers to cut many miles off the route from the Pennsylvania coal fields, down the Delaware, around Cape May, and up along the (occasionally treacherous) Atlantic Ocean coast to New York City.
Delaware River–Turnpike Toll Bridge The Delaware River–Turnpike Toll Bridge is a four-lane, steel, arch-shaped, continuous truss bridge that connects the Pennsylvania Turnpike's East-West Mainline with the main trunk of the New Jersey Turnpike, via the Pearl Harbor Memorial Turnpike Extension (formerly known as the Pennsylvania Extension). The bridge crosses the Delaware River, connecting Bristol Township, Pennsylvania and Burlington Township, New Jersey. The bridge was closed to traffic on January 20, 2017, after a crack was discovered in a steel truss; it reopened on March 9 of that year.