Lehigh River
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Image:Lehigh River.JPG The Lehigh River, a tributary of the Delaware River, is a 103 mile (166 km) long river located in eastern Pennsylvania, in the United States. Part of the Lehigh, along with a number of its smaller tributaries, is a designated Pennsylvania Scenic River.
The river flows in a highly winding course through valleys between ridges of the Appalachian Mountains. Its lower course forms the heart of the Lehigh Valley, an historically important anthracite coal and steel-producing region of Pennsylvania.
The river rises in the Pocono Mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania, in several ponds in southwestern Wayne County, approximately 15 miles (24 km) southeast of Scranton. It flows initially southwest, through southern Lackawanna County, through Francis E. Walter Reservoir. Near Middleburg, it turns south, following a zigzag course to Jim Thorpe, then southeast, past Lehighton. Southeast of Lehighton, it passes through Blue Mountain in a narrow opening called the Lehigh Gap.
From the Lehigh Gap, the river flows southeast to Allentown, where it is joined by the Little Lehigh Creek, then northeast past Bethlehem, where it joins the Delaware River in Easton, along Pennsylvania's border with New Jersey.
