Delaware River Could Become a National Park

How does the idea of making the Delaware River a National Park hit you? There's an effort afoot to make that happen over the next few years. It started with a meeting in Camden Friday morning.The idea, designate the river from Trenton south to the bay a National Recreation Area, starts with a formal request made to the Park Service by two members of Congress around here:  Rob Andrews and Allyson Schwartz:

But in the end, it takes an act of Congress and a presidential signature to make it happen. Now, before you ask how can you have a park that big tankers go through, Patrick Starr with the Pennsylvania Environmental Council points to other places that have pulled it off:

"One is New York Harbor, so they have a little bit of activity there. One is the Golden Gate out in San Francisco:  a busy commercial port, and the other is Mississippi River in Minneapolis-St. Paul."
 
An official designation would, proponents suggest, promote much of recreational options already available along the river. Such a movement takes, on average, about three years to complete.