Delaware River
The Delaware River is a major river in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States and is the longest free-flowing river in the Eastern United States. From the meeting of its branches in Hancock, New York, the river flows for along the borders of New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware, before emptying into Delaware Bay.
The river has been recognized by the National Wildlife Federation as one of the country's Great Waters and has been called the "Lifeblood of the Northeast" by American Rivers. Its watershed drains an area of and provides drinking water for 17 million people, including half of New York City via the Delaware Aqueduct.
The Delaware River has two branches that rise in the Catskill Mountains of New York: the West Branch at Mount Jefferson in Jefferson, Schoharie County, and the East Branch at Grand Gorge, Delaware County. The branches merge to form the main Delaware River at Hancock, New York. Flowing south, the river remains relatively undeveloped, with protected as the Upper, Middle, and Lower Delaware National Scenic Rivers. At Trenton, New Jersey, the Delaware becomes tidal, navigable, and more industrial. This section forms the backbone of the Delaware Valley metropolitan area, serving the port cities of Philadelphia, Camden, New Jersey, and Wilmington, Delaware. The river flows into Delaware Bay at Liston Point, upstream of the bay's outlet to the Atlantic Ocean, between Cape May and Cape Henlopen.
Before the arrival of European settlers, the river was the homeland of the Lenape native people. They called the river Lënapei Sipu or Lenapewihittuk, meaning Lenape River, and Kithanne, meaning the largest river in this part of the country.
In 1609, the river was visited by a Dutch East India Company expedition led by Henry Hudson, an English navigator hired to find a western route to Cathay. His encounters set the stage for Dutch colonization of North America in the 17th century. Early Dutch and Swedish settlements were established along the lower section of the river and Delaware Bay. Both colonial powers called the river the South River, distinguishing it from the North River—today’s Hudson River. After the English expelled the Dutch and took control of the New Netherland colony in 1664, the river was renamed Delaware after Sir Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr, an English nobleman and the Virginia colony's first royal governor, who defended the colony during the First Anglo-Powhatan War. George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River in 1776 led victory in the Battle of Trenton, a pivotal moment in the American Revolution.
Name
The Delaware River is named in honor of Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr, an English nobleman and the Virginia colony's first royal governor, who defended the colony during the First Anglo-Powhatan War. Lord de la Warr waged a punitive campaign to subdue the Powhatan after they had killed the colony's council president, John Ratcliffe, and attacked the colony's fledgling settlements. Lord de la Warr arrived with 150 soldiers in time to prevent the colony's original settlers at Jamestown from giving up and returning to England and is credited with saving the Virginia colony. The name of the barony is pronounced as in the current spelling form "Delaware" and is thought to derive from French de la Guerre.It has often been reported that the river and bay received the name "Delaware" after English forces under Richard Nicolls expelled the Dutch and took control of the New Netherland colony in 1664. However, the river and bay were known by the name Delaware as early as 1641. The state of Delaware was originally part of the William Penn's Pennsylvania colony. In 1682, the Duke of York granted Penn's request for access to the sea and leased him the territory along the western shore of Delaware Bay, which became known as the "Lower Counties on the Delaware". In 1704, the Lower Counties were given political autonomy to form a separate provincial assembly, but they shared Pennsylvania's provincial governor until the two colonies separated on June 15, 1776, and they remained separate as states after the establishment of the United States.
The name "Delaware" also came to be used as a collective name for the Lenape, a Native American people who inhabited an area of the basins of the Susquehanna River, Delaware River, and lower Hudson River in the northeastern United States at the time of European settlement, as well as for their language. As a result of disruption following the French and Indian War, American Revolutionary War, and the later Indian removals from the eastern United States, the name "Delaware" has been spread with the Lenape's diaspora to municipalities, counties and other geographical features in the American Midwest and Canada. The Lenape refer to this river as the Lënapei Sipu, Lenapewihittuck, or Kithanna.
Length
The length of the main stem of the Delaware River from the confluence of its branches to the head of Delaware Bay at Liston Point is. However, the river's tidal estuary widens gradually, and there is no clear hydrological dividing point between the river and the bay. Liston Point is considered the head of Delaware Bay only by legal agreement between New Jersey and Delaware, as marked by a pair of survey monuments. As such, some observers may include the entire length of Delaware Bay from Liston Point to the Atlantic Ocean in the length of the river, giving the Delaware River an overall length of.At either length the main stem of the Delaware River is the longest free-flowing river in the Eastern United States. "Free-flowing" means the river is not impounded by dams and its course is not significantly altered or diverted. Idaho's Salmon River is the longest free-flowing river in the contiguous United States, at.
There are two wing dams on the river, one between Lambertville and New Hope and one between Lumberville and Raven Rock. The wing dams affect the accumulation of sediment but do not cross the entire width of the river. Many tributaries of the Delaware River are dammed or diverted, including its two upper branches. Cannonsville Reservoir impounds the West Branch and Pepacton Reservoir impounds the East Branch, controlling the release of water in to the main stem Delaware River.
Watershed
The Delaware River's drainage basin has an area of and encompasses 42 counties and 838 municipalities in five U.S. states: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware. This total area constitutes approximately 0.4% of the land mass in the United States. In 2001, the watershed was 18% agricultural land, 14% developed land, and 68% forested land.There are 216 tributary streams and creeks comprising an estimated 14,057 miles of streams and creeks, in the watershed. While the watershed is home to 4.17 million people according to the 2000 Federal Census, these bodies of water provide drinking water to 17 million people—roughly 6% of the population of the United States. The waters of the Delaware River's basin are used to sustain "fishing, transportation, power, cooling, recreation, and other industrial and residential purposes." It is the 33rd largest river in the United States in terms of flow, but is among the nation's most heavily used rivers in daily freight tonnage. The average annual flow rate of the Delaware is 11,700 cubic feet per second at Trenton, New Jersey. With no dams or impediments on the river's main stem, the Delaware is one of the few remaining large free-flowing rivers in the United States.
Course
West Branch of the Delaware
The West Branch of the Delaware River, also called the Mohawk Branch, spans approximately from the northern Catskill Mountains to its confluence with the Delaware River's East Branch at Hancock, New York. The last forms part of the boundary between New York and Pennsylvania.The West Branch rises in Schoharie County, New York at above sea level, near Mount Jefferson, and flows tortuously through the plateau in a deep trough. The branch flows generally southwest, entering Delaware County and flowing through the towns of Stamford and Delhi. In southwestern Delaware County it flows in an increasingly winding course through the mountains, generally southwest. At Stilesville the West Branch was impounded in the 1960s to form the Cannonsville Reservoir, the westernmost of the reservoirs in the New York City water system. It is the most recently constructed New York City reservoir and began serving the city in 1964. Draining a large watershed of, the reservoir's capacity is. This water flows over halfway through the reservoir to enter the West Delaware Tunnel in Tompkins, New York. Then it flows through the aqueduct into the Rondout Reservoir, where the water enters the Delaware Aqueduct, that contributes to roughly 50% of the city's drinking water supply. At Deposit, on the border between Broome and Delaware counties, it turns sharply to the southeast and is paralleled by New York State Route 17. It joins the East Branch at above sea level at Hancock to form the Delaware.
East Branch of the Delaware
Similarly, the East Branch begins from a small pond south of Grand Gorge in the town of Roxbury in Delaware County, flowing southwest toward its impoundment by New York City to create the Pepacton Reservoir, the largest reservoir in the New York City water supply system. Its tributaries are the Beaver Kill River and the Willowemoc Creek which enter into the river before the West Branch meets the East Branch. The confluence of the two branches is just south of Hancock.The East Branch and West Branch of the Delaware River parallel each other, both flowing in a southwesterly direction.