The Delaware and Raritan Canal connected the Chesapeake Bay with New England ports, allowing a wide variety of vessels to use the waterway and avoid the treacherous Atlantic Ocean. The unusual machinery of the canal—locks, swing bridges, aqueducts, spill gates—is depicted in detail in The Delaware and Raritan Canal at Work. The book focuses on many of the businesses that operated along the canal, including farms, food-packing companies, rubber-reclaiming plants, coal yards, quarries, Johnson & Johnson, and Atlantic Terra Cotta. It includes scenic views along this famous waterway, one of the most successful towpath canals in the United States.