The Delaware & Hudson Canal was built in the 1820's to bring Anthracite coal from the Pennsylvania mines to the New York market. It stretched from the mouth of the Rondout River in Kingston to Port Jervis on the Delaware, up the Delaware to the Lackawaxen River and up the Lackawaxen to Honesdale. Even that did not get them all the way to the coal fields, there was still a mountain range in the way. So they built a gravity railroad to bring the coal over the mountain to the canal. The whole thing was built in 3 years at a cost of $2 million dollars. It was abandoned at the turn of century having been rendered obsolete by the development of the railroads. Today only a few of the locks built of stone still remain.