Once a Busy Rail Line, Now a Busy Hiking Trail

The passenger train pictured on this post card is travelling on what is now a National Recreation Area administered by the National Parks of the United States. It is in a gap between New Jersey and Pennsylvania in which the Delaware River flows. It is just south of where the borders of New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York all share a meeting point. This website of the National Park Service tells a bit of history of the Delware Water Gap, including some railroad history: https://www.nps.gov/dewa/index.htm

The Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railway (DL&W) first arrived at the Delaware River on May 13, 1856 with a train to New York City. The terrain from Scranton had been mountainous and isolated; the route traced the course of major streams, crossed the Lehigh's headwater at Gouldsboro, and bisected Pocono Summit Lake on DL&W's land bridge. In what is now the park, the single-track line used an old right-of-way to Slateford Junction on the Delaware, then crossed into New Jersey and continued to New York via existing tracks. The effect of the new rail line on the Delaware Valley was immense. The resort industry at the Water Gap had begun with Kittatinny Hotel, built in 1832. With the railroads now also promoting the Gap as a destination, 16 more hotels sprung up in the village of Delaware Water Gap by the century's end. Additional rail lines, such as the New York, Susquehanna, and Western (NYS&W) served the Jersey side of the Gap. A small section of the Delaware Valley Railway bed is now part of Railway Avenue Trail in Bushkill, and just under a mile of the NYS&W rail bed is now the Karamac Trail in New Jersey. The DL&W's single track is still in use through the Gap between the river and Route 611, and occasionally an excursion train from Steamtown National Historic Site will reach Point of Gap Overlook. Just outside the park, the rail station in Delaware Water Gap awaits renewal. From 1901 to 1938, the Delaware Valley Railroad ran a spur from East Stroudsburg station to Bushkill PA, carrying both passengers and freight. Resort-based agriculture, such as dairying, began to replace subsistence farming, and remote areas between Scranton and the Stroudsburgs filled with villages and farms. Church, scout, and trade groups lined the banks of the river with rustic summer camps. The park encompasses significant Native American archeological sites, several of which have been investigated. A number of structures also remain from early Dutch settlement and the colonial contact period. The entire region was a frontier of the French & Indian War. Historic rural villages from the 18th and 19th centuries remain intact on the New Jersey side, and landscapes of past settlements are scattered throughout the park. In the 19th century, the village of Delaware Water Gap was a focus of the early resort industry fostered by the railroads. Even today the region is known for its vacation appeal. The proposal to dam the Delaware River near today's Smithfield Beach brought the region and its inhabitants into another era of American history -- the conservation and environmental movements of the 1960s and later.

This post card is from the divided back era (1907 – 1915). Because it was printed by Curt Otto Teich, we can get very close the actual date of the printing. The number at the bottom-middle of the card is R-31555. Between 1908 and 1928 the company’s number system went up to 124180. 31555 is about 25% of the distance from 1 to the end. 25% of the 20 years between 1908 and 1928 is about 1913.

The post card was published by J. F. Kirkton of Delaware Water Gap, Pennsylvania. I searched the internet for information about this person, but could only find other post cards published by him; I found nothing about him. I have a second post card of the gap. It was also printed by Curt Otto Teich. No publisher is listed. I include it here so you can enjoy the airplane flying over as well as the train passing through it.