About the lower locks

These locks used to lift and drop canal boats 25 feet down from the canal to the river.  

Canal boats brought coal and lumber down from Schuylkill County into the City of Philadelphia and would take supplies up river from the City to the towns above.

Photo: Men working on Lock 69 in the 1970s when the tow path was built along Manayunk Canal. Courtesy of the Philadelphia Water Department Archive.