"The Leak" by Patrick Cabry

Before the arrival of Europeans, the Delaware River was known by Lenape Native Americans as Lenapewihittuk, or Lenape River, and Kithanne, meaning the largest river in this part of the country. During early Dutch occupancy, the river was considered the South River, while the North River referred to the present-day Hudson River in New York. The English expelled the Dutch and took control of the New Netherland Colony in 1664 and the river was renamed Delaware after Sir Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr, an English nobleman and the Virginia Colony’s first royal governor who defended the colony during the First Anglo-Powhatan War.

The Delaware River’s drainage basin has an area of 14,119 square miles that navigates through New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware. Its total watershed provides water to approximately 17-million people- roughly 6% of the United State’s population. It is the 33rd largest river in the U.S. in terms of flow, but the nation’s most heavily used river in daily volume of tonnage. With an annual average flow rate of 11,700 cubic feet per second at Trenton, New Jersey and no dams on the river’s main stem, the Delaware is one of the few remaining large free-flowing rivers in the U.S.