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Title 33 — Navigation and Navigable WatersRelease 119-73

§28 Crum River; old channel at mouth, Delaware Bay

Title 33 › Chapter CHAPTER 1— - NAVIGABLE WATERS GENERALLY › Subchapter SUBCHAPTER II— - WATERS DECLARED NONNAVIGABLE: CHANGE OF NAME › § 28

Last updated Apr 6, 2026|Official source

Summary

When the Crum River is straightened under the July 27, 1916 Act (chapter 260), the new channel will be a public navigable stream. The old course from the Philadelphia and Reading Railway Company's right‑of‑way to the Delaware River low‑water line will be abandoned once the new channel is finished at 4 feet deep at mean low water, with a 62‑foot bottom and 100‑foot width. The United States must hold rights in the new riverbed so the public can use it forever for navigation and commerce.

Full Legal Text

Title 33, §28

Navigation and Navigable Waters — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

After the channel of the Crum River where the same empties into the Delaware River has been changed, diverted, and straightened under the authority given to Alba B. Johnson and Samuel M. Vauclain and the Baldwin Locomotive Works by Act July 27, 1916, chapter 260, the said Crum River, as so straightened, shall be a public navigable stream, and the course and channel of the said river, as it existed July 27, 1916, from the right-of-way of the Philadelphia and Reading Railway Company to the low-water line in the Delaware River shall be abandoned and vacated when the above-mentioned new channel shall have been completed to a depth of four feet at mean low water, with a bottom width of sixty-two feet and width of one hundred feet at mean low-water level: Provided, That the Government shall have such right, title, and interest in and to the bed of said new channel as will assure the public the right to the perpetual use of said channel for all the purposes of navigation and commerce.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

References in Text

Act
July 27, 1916, chapter 260, referred to in text, is act
July 27, 1916, ch. 260, 39 Stat. 393, which is classified to section 7, 25, 28, 38, 424, and 648 to 650 of this title. For complete classification of this Act to the Code, see Tables. Codification Section is from a provision of section 1 of act
July 27, 1916, popularly known as the “Rivers and Harbors Appropriation Act of 1916”. The portion of that section authorizing the changing, diverting, and straightening of the channel of the river has been omitted as temporary and executed.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

33 U.S.C. § 28

Title 33 — Navigation and Navigable Waters

Last Updated

Apr 6, 2026

Release point: 119-73