The Susquehanna River, A Navigable Highway

The Susquehanna River bisects our state. One branch is known as the West Branch and flows East through Lock Haven and Williamsport, then South until it joins with the North Branch in Northumberland. The North Branch begins in New York state and flows South through Wilkes-Barre. The river then flows South and East to the Chesapeake Bay, draining an estimated 27,500 square miles of the state, an area larger than Massachusetts, New Jersey, Vermont and Delaware put together. The river is the longest non-navigable river in North America.

Nevertheless, in 1771 the provincial assembly named the Susquehanna River "a public highway" and set aside money to make it navigable. The first families to come up the river were propelled by four men with setting poles, cruising about two miles an hour against the current. If you go traipsing through the Pine Grove Cemetery, located between Mulberry and Market Streets, Berwick, you'll find two headstones (John Turk and Ceber Whitmars) of men killed in the explosion of the steamship "Susquehanna" at Berwick May 3, 1826. These men died because of attempts to mechanize navigation of the river in this area.

The first attempt to navigate the river by the steamboat "Codorus" worked. She was 60-feet long, 9-feet wide, had a sheet-iron hull, and unloaded drew seven inches of water. The hold was two and one-half feet deep, two boilers supplied the steam for a ten horse-power engine and 70 persons could be transported. The boat made a successful trip up the Susquehanna from Harrisburg in March and April, 1826, ending in Binghamton, NY. (By car on route 11 today, the trip is 184 miles and should take about three hours and 15 minutes.)

The second attempt involved a larger vessel, the "Susquehanna," 80 feet long, 14 feet wide with an iron hull, able to carry almost 200 persons. On May 3, 1826, the ship attempted to pass Nescopeck Falls (sometimes called Nescopeck rapids), just under where the current bridge stands. The voyage was tried at high water because the river has both a high ridge and shallow water that forces the water into a narrow channel near the Berwick side. There is also a large tubelike hole just under the new bridge. The hole has higher rock on the upstream side which causes the water to rush in from the Nescopeck side of the hole and creates a violent eddy. Most of the year navigation is impossible but the hope was that the high waters would allow navigation. The steamboat got stranded on the rocks near the shore, about the center of the channel below the present bridge. One of the crew was holding down the safety valve, and the strain became too much for the crude boilers, and one of them exploded.

The boat was not badly damaged but two men were killed instantly by the escaping steam and many others were scalded. The accident put an end to navigation of the Susquehanna and the failure of steamboat passage led to renewed interest in a canal, which began not many years later.

The first few verses of a popular poem abut the accident follow:

Ye raftsmen all of every state
Come and listen of what I relate.
A melancholy tale indeed,
Which almost makes my heart to bleed.

At Berwick Falls she did arrive.
To gain the riffles hard they strived.
Cries one on board, this is the course!
To give her steam, we will her force.

O! Stop! Replies the engineer
With consternation and with fear.
Press on aloud another calls.
I think we can go up the falls.

Aloud the engineer replies,
All clear the deck and save our lives.
Alas, his counsel was in vain,
For soon the boiler burst in twain.
--The Berwick Enterprise, June 26, 1936
--History of Columbia and Montour Counties, J. H. Battle, 1887
--Karyn Long"