Linda J. Barth

Linda J. Barth

Author | Teacher | Tour Leader

I’m Linda Barth and I live in Somerville with my husband Bob, my biggest fan and supporter.

Bob and I are active in the D&R Canal Watch, a group that helps to protect the historic Delaware & Raritan Canal in central New Jersey. We invite you to visit the D&R Canal State Park to walk, canoe, fish, ride your horse, bird watch, take photos, and just enjoy the beauty of the park. In addition, we like to travel around the United States and to foreign countries, too.

We have boated on the Erie Canal in New York State as well as canals in England, Wales, Scotland, France, and the Netherlands. We rode on a wonderful invention called the Falkirk Wheel in Scotland; the wheel is like a Ferris wheel that moves boats up and down.

I often combine my interest in canals with my writing to produce travel articles and books. Two of my volumes for Arcadia Publishing are The Delaware and Raritan Canal and The Delaware and Raritan Canal at Work. I also wrote a children’s book, Bridgetender’s Boy, about the son of the canal worker who moved the bridge out of the way so that boats could pass through. A few years ago I was asked to write some articles for the Encyclopedia of New Jersey. That was fun because I had to research and visit towns I had never been to before.

I am a retired fourth-grade teacher, formerly working in the Bridgewater-Raritan Regional School District in Somerset County, New Jersey. I also do work for a few nonprofit groups, like the D&R Canal Watch, the American Canal Society, and the League of Historical Societies of New Jersey.