Woodward's chapter on canals and railroads
Woodward, E.M., History of Burlington and Mercer Counties. pp. 58-63. CHAPTER X. CANALS AND RAILROADS. "IN Beecher’s Magazine for January, 1872, Judge Lucius Q.C. Elmer published an article entitled ‘General Bernard and Joseph Bonaparte.’ In December, 1823, an act was passel by the Legislature of New Jersey appointing Lucius Q.C. Elmer, Peter Kean, and George Holcombe commissioners for the purpose of ascertaining the practicability and expediency of a canal to unite the tidewaters of the Delaware and Raritan Rivers. There was at that time a board of engineers, organized by virtue of a special act of Congress as a board of internal improvements. This board came into New Jersey, and in conjunction with the State board made a hasty examination of the route previously surveyed, in 1816, by a State commission under John Randel, Jr., Esq. The final result of this examination was that the plan of making the canal a State or national work was abandoned, and in 1830 the Delaware and Rari