Floods

The navigation of the Schuylkill canal, which had been impeded by the low stage of water in 1838, was seriously damaged by an ice freshet of extraordinary magnitude on the 26th and 27th of January, 1839. The ground being frozen hard and impervious to water, the streams were soon overflowing by the heavy rain, the ice broke up, and the torrent with the force of a deluge swept crashing and roaring through the valley of the Schuylkill with fearful impetuosity, carry along with resistless force every obstacle or obstacle or obstruction that it encountered. The water rose in a few hours in many places twenty feet above its usual level, sweeping away bridges landings, canal boats and dams, and doing great damage to the works of the canal in exposed situations. In Philadelphia the freshet caused the greatest inundation ever known in the Schuylkill. The wharves were entirely submerged, and the entire eastern shore of the Schuylkill, extending from the Market street bridge over a mile toward the Naval Asylum, presented a scene of chaotic confusion, wreck and ruin. Not a single vessel of any kind was left afloat after the water had subsided. Barges, boats, sloops and schooners were lying ashore, and some of them had been lifted by the rising water over vast heaps of coal, and deposited in a situation from which they could only be extricated with great difficulty. By extraordinary exertion the Schuylkill canal was repaired in time for the usual opening of navigation to the coal trade.

Reference

1. HISTORY OF SCHUYLKILL COUNTY, PA., New York: W. W. Munsell & Co., 36 Vesey Street, 1881