Holmesburg is one of the older communities of Philadelphia and home
to the nations oldest stone-arch bridge still carrying the traffic
of a major highway. But how did Holmesburg come to be here? Why in
the late 1600’s did a village begin to grow at this particular spot
along Pennypack Creek? Is there some special feature of the creek
at this spot which made the early settlers say "This is the
place!"? Yes indeed there is. What made this an important location
for development along the creek is a geological feature known as
the fall-line.
The Pennypack’s fall-line is the point where the creek flows over
the last sets of rapids and drops almost to the level of the
Delaware River. From the fall-line on out to the Delaware, the
Pennypack is a tidal creek and changes from shallow to deep and
back again in a cycle repeated twice daily as the tide rises and
falls on the Delaware.
You can see the fall-line for yourself as you walk across the old
bridge on its downstream side. The fall-line is the set of rapids
immediately downstream from the bridge. It is not a dramatic
feature of the landscape but it has shaped our local history by the
way it effects the flow of the creek Upstream from the fall-line
the creek is normally shallow enough to wade safely. Downstream
from the fall-line the creek is too deep to wade at high tide but
provides water deep enough to float boats. In fact on a good high
tide the Pennypack could be used as part of a water-highway from
the heart of Holmesburg all the way to the Atlantic Ocean!
From the earliest days, people in this area noticed the fall-line
and took advantage of it. Sometime deep in prehistory Indians
established a trail through here which crossed the creek at the
fall-line. When Europeans arrived they continued to use this trail,
making it their "King’s Highway", and William Penn had his bridge
built here in 1697.
In addition to being the best crossing-point, the fall line
provided early colonial industrialists with two things they needed:
water-power and transportation. A natural water-fall upstream from
the bridge became the foundation for a mill-dam. (The old
"Holmesburg Dam", now "Rocky Falls".) The mills themselves were
built not at the dam but about a quarter of a mile downstream,
below the fall-line, on a stretch of the creek where the high tide
provided water deep enough to float small cargo boats. Water to
turn the mill-wheels came from the dam to the mills through a long
mill-race.
The mill owners took full advantage of their location: water-power
ran a saw-mill turning logs into lumber and a grist-mill grinding
grain into flour and meal. High tidewater on the creek allowed raw
materials and finished products to come and go by boat, an unusual
advantage which made the old "Pennypack" mills especially important
in early Pennsylvania history. Farmers came by boat from New
Jersey, rowing up the creek to bring their grain to be ground at
the mill which had a kind of dock or wharf right on the creek.
Barrels of flour and meal were shipped down the creek to the Port
of Philadelphia and beyond; to the West Indies and Europe. So
important was this mill that Welsh farmers who had settled in
Montgomery county built a road to bring their grain to the mill.
(We still know it today a Welsh Road. Follow Welsh Road to its end
and you will find Mill Street which leads directly to where the old
mills once stood.)
Being situated at the fall-line area, the Pennypack mills
prospered and the mills helped make early Holmesburg. With the
mills came the need for workers and housing for them. Merchants set
up shops to supply their needs. The local population increased and
flourished. Schools were established. Congregations formed and
built their churches. The intersection of the Welsh Road and the
King’s Highway became a convenient place for travelers to pause for
rest and refreshment. Several hotels were established and continued
in business all through the 1800’s.
In 1803 the Frankford and Bristol Turnpike Company was formed and
Holmesburg got its own toll-house and toll-gate. In 1868 the
Bustleton railroad was built through Holmesburg, carrying both
passengers and freight. The freight included coal to fuel the new
steam-engines which now replaced water-power to run the
mills.
With steam-power running the mills and the railroad transporting
goods, the Pennypack began to lose its importance in the local
economy. By 1905 lands along the Pennypack had been acquired for
parkland. The mills, now in disrepair, were torn down, clearing the
way for recreation.
But the creek still flows through the heart of Holmesburg, under
the old bridge and across the fall-line where the tides still rise
and fall in the ancient rhythm. Walk across the bridge and take a
look for yourself— see the reason why a town grew here, at this
particular spot along the Pennypack.
America’s earliest history reflects the shape of the land and the
way its waters flow or shift with the tide. The nature of the land
determined what happened here. At Pennypack Creek’s fall-line in
the heart of Holmesburg, nature and history flow together.
A fall line is an unconformity. A fall line is typically prominent
when crossed by a river, for there will often be rapids or
waterfalls. Many times a fall line will recede upstream as the
river cuts out the uphill dense material, many times forming “c”
shaped waterfalls. Because of these features river boats typically
cannot travel any farther inland without portaging unless locks are
built. On the other hand, the rapid change in elevation of the
water, and the resulting energy release, makes the fall line a good
location for a water mill. Because of the need for a port and a
ready supply of water power, settlements often develop where rivers
cross a fall line.
In the 19th Century, the fall line often represented the head of
navigation on rivers at points like Little Falls or the Great
Falls, on the Potomac River. However, since the advent of flumes
for water supply and canals for shipping in the early 20th Century,
the most prominent feature of fall line settlement was the
establishment of the cities along it. As the cities were linked by
the early highways, U.S. Route 1 and Interstate 95 came to pass
through many of these cities, roughly tracing the fall line.
To claim this EarthCache: 1) go
to the coordinates and take a photo of yourself and GPSr at the
Fall Line here. 2) Email the two prominent colors of rock at the
Fall Line. One is prominent and the other is almost squeezed (i.e.
The Geomorphic Process of a fault line) between the other. 3) Take
a photo of either the "Rocky Fall" or the "Holmesburg Dam" or a
view of the river towards where the Mill would have stood.
Post the photos in your log and send the email
and you are good to go!!!
If your picture is not ready then wait until you
have a photo. Logs with no photo of the actual cacher logging the
find or failure to answer questions will result in a log deletion.
Email me if you had any difficulties or problems, as I understand
that things can happen we don't expect. Thanks.
I love it when a cache comes together, Strike
Anywhere!
MORE INFO: Just recently, members of the natural
lands reclamation division of the Fairmount Park Commission
effected the removal of the Holmesburg Dam (1699): a structure of
unquestionable historical significance that powered a combination
sawmill and gristmill for much of the 18th century. The dam was the
last vestige of a complex that one stood on the distant fringes of
an international colonial trade network. At high tide, grain and
lumber from the mill complex south of Frankford Avenue was shipped
via shallow draft boats to Philadelphia and distant colonial ports.
Weakened by floods, the dam was breeched by Park ecologists to
allow fish passage. Most other dams in Fairmount Park waterways
dating from the 1920s-1930s were designed to create recreational
swimming holes. Though structurally sound, these dams lack the
historical weight of Holmesburg and are similarly
threatened.
Thanks to Roland Williams for most of the above History.
S'nice!