The National Canal Museum debuted a new special exhibition titled Putting Down Routes: From Native Trails to Interstates on the opening day of its season – April 6, 2024. 

Explore the evolution of transportation in the Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor. Learn how ferries became bridges, industrial routes became recreational trails, and Native American trails became bridle roads, auto roads, and occasionally interstates.

“People have lived in Pennsylvania for more than 10,000 years,” says Martha Capwell Fox, DLNHC Historian. “These first Pennsylvanians moved everywhere on foot… After thousands of years of travel over them, the routes of these well-planned paths were followed almost exactly by most of Pennsylvania’s roads that were built before 1900.”

Panels and maps help illustrate the history of each route and its original path.  

Putting Down Routes: From Native Trails to Interstates is on display from April 6 through December 22. 

This exhibition was made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the County of Northampton’s Hotel Tax Program, and the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.