October 9, 2020 - Northern Delaware
This Friday afternoon was one of those times when the weather was nice and I just wanted to go flying.  I didn't really know where I was going.  I remembered from watching the show "Aerial America" on the Smithsonian Channel that there was an island in the Delaware river near Wilmington that had a Civil War fort on it or something.  So I decided to go check it out.  I crossed over to the Eastern Shore and headed north up the Bay.  Soon I came to an area I call the "Delta".  At peak foliage, the trees growing out of the shallow water can turn bright red.  But not today; it's too early.
   
There's a little color; not much.
   
Looking down the Delta into the Chesapeake Bay.
   
And looking east up the Delta.
   
At the top of the Bay, I brach northeast into the Elk River.  I pass this large trailer park which has been here forever.
   
Looking east up the Back Creek which turns into the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal.  The Canal runs east-west and connects the Chesapeake Bay and Delaware River/Bay.  It was first opened for business in 1829.
   

Heading east along the C&D Canal in late afternoon.

The Chesapeake & Delaware Canal (C&D Canal) is a 14-mile long, 450-foot wide and 35-foot deep ship canal that connects the Delaware River with the Chesapeake Bay in the states of Delaware and Maryland in the United States. The C&D Canal is owned and operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Philadelphia District. The project office in Chesapeake City, Maryland, is also the site of the C&D Canal Museum and Bethel Bridge Lighthouse. The canal saves approximately 300 miles on the route between Wilmington and Baltimore, and similar for Philadelphia to Baltimore, whereas otherwise ships would have to go around the lower peninsula of Delaware.  In Delaware, the canal is itself a significant landmark and cultural boundary, considered a divide between the urbanized northern portion of the state and the rural southern portion, and demarcates an unofficial northern limit to the Delmarva Peninsula.

Today's canal is a modern sea-level, electronically controlled commercial waterway, carrying 40 percent of all ship traffic in and out of the Port of Baltimore.  -- Wikipedia
   
Highway 213 crosses the canal at Chesapeake City over the Chesapeake City Bridge.  I'll have to go to the Canal museum somewhere down there someday.
   
The blue Summit bridge where Highway 896 crosses the Canal.
   
Looking south, Highway 896 runs right by Summit Airport in Middletown, Delaware.  Amazingly, although it is only 36 nautical miles from Essex Skypark, I have never landed here in the RV-7.  I did land here in the old Citabria once or twice.
   
A pipeline bridge!  I've seen one of these before; over the Flaming Gorge Reservoir in Utah.
   
A railroad lift bridge, built in 1966.
   
Approaching the William V. Roth Jr. (Delaware Highway 1) and St. Georges Bridges (US Highway 13).
   
Delaware River ahead!  One last bridge to go:  the Reedy Point bridge (Delaware Highway 9).
   
Looking south down the Delaware River.  Two big tankers are headed south out of Philadelphia or Wilmington.
   
Looking north at Pea Patch Island.
 
The island is currently owned by the State of Delaware as Fort Delaware State Park and is assessable by ferry from both Delaware and New Jersey.
   
Construction on Fort Delaware began in 1848 on the current fort, with an irregular pentagon design about the size of the previous star fort. The fort was substantially complete by 1860.  During the American Civil War, Fort Delaware was used by the Union as a camp for Confederate prisoners, in particular ones captured at the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg.
   
 
   
Passing by the little town of Port Penn, population 252.
   
P29
   
 
Continuing south over the marsh area of northeast Delaware.
   
 
   
The sun really lit everything up.
   
 
   
Now heading west for home, I pass by a modern-day prison.  The food is probably better than what the Confederates received at Fort Delaware but still not a place you want to be.
   
Save the trees!  (Sarc)
   
 
   
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