DELAWARE RIVER HERITAGE LECTURE FEATURES
“Trenton – A Forgotten Port Community”

Speaker: Richard Hunter, PhD.
When: May 22, 2017   7 pm
At the Pittore Justice Center
25 South Union Street, Lambertville, NJ

Dr. Hunter will discuss the history of Trenton as a port and trading hub at the head of navigation on the Delaware River. Originating as the site of a ford, ferry and mills in the early colonial period, Trenton soon emerged as an important focus of the fishing industry in the mid-18th century. Beginning in the 1760s Trenton Landing, (aka Lamberton), became a satellite port of Philadelphia with transatlantic and Caribbean shipping docking on the riverbank where the Route 29 tunnel is today. Trenton Landing was a key supply station for American forces during the Revolutionary War and the port thrived into the early 19th century as sailing vessels began to be replaced by steamboats. Decline came as the Delaware and Raritan Canal and the railroads took business away from the waterfront from the 1830s onward, but Trenton maintained a portly presence well into the 20th century with its marine terminal. This presentation will draw heavily on the historical and archaeological studies carried out over the past 20 years in connection with the reconstruction of Route 29.

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