t’s 1840 — everything is happening so fast. The area went from rural to industrial in 60 years, and no one would recognize the changes.

Coal mining began the industrial revolution of Pennsylvania, and three areas were consumed by it through natural disaster, economic success and its undeniable decline.

The National Canal Museum opened “What the River Saw: Mapping 200 Years of the D&L Corridor’s Living Landscape” this week. It is serving as the museum’s special exhibit that changes every year.

This year’s exhibit focuses on the change of landscape and development within the Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor. Many counties, including Carbon County, are mentioned throughout the exhibit.

“This is about our story, our region as a whole, which is one of the biggest pieces of American history,” said Martha Capwell Fox, Historian & Archives Coordinator of the Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor Inc.

The exhibit’s biggest features are two long, hand-drawn maps of the Delaware and Lehigh Rivers. The maps were created by Isaac Chapman in 1825. The Lehigh River map goes from Mauch Chunk (now Jim Thorpe) to Allentown, and the Delaware River map is from Easton to Trenton, New Jersey. The two artifacts show how closely connected every region is to one another during this period.

The exhibit explores three areas: Lehigh Tannery, South Bethlehem and Falls Township, Bucks County. Each area is highlighted on how their environments changed from rural to industrial and back again — the process of nature reclaiming itself.

Lehigh Tannery, one of the biggest tanneries in the 19th century, had its times of success, but also devastation. Hemlock tree bark was a popular resource, so the bark was stripped and hundreds of logs were left unattended, ultimately leading to fires in 1865 and 1874.

South Bethlehem was full of farmland until the 1840s when it was bought by Zinc Works. By 1900, 25,000 people lived in Bethlehem and one-third of them worked for Bethlehem Iron. Sixty percent of the population was immigrants. The evolution of the different companies in Bethlehem changed the community.

Falls Township, Bucks County was the place for some of the earliest settlers of Pennsylvania. Once known for its bountiful agriculture, it quickly changed into an industrial site of Fairless Steel Works. The economic boost helped the area, but it struggles to rebuild after the steel plant closed in the 1990s.

The verbal and written history is evident, but the biggest challenge for the creation of this exhibit was gathering pictures. A lot of important events occurred before the discovery of photography.

Many of the pictures in the exhibit are landscape portraits by Rufus Grider. Grider would travel and climb to strange places to capture the perfect scene to paint when any event occurred in the Bethlehem area. The material was provided by Moravian Archives.

The most interesting part about the exhibit is the background information behind it all, and its ties with the Coal Region.

“All of this happened because of the anthracite mine in Summit Hill,” Capwell Fox said. “Philip Ginder finding the coal changed everything.”

Formerly known as Sharp Mountain, Summit Hill became the discovery place of anthracite coal in 1791. Josiah White and Erskine Hazard started the open cut coal pit known as “The Old Mine” which was located in the Mammoth Vein — the most important deposit of the day.

American history of industrial revolution began right in many backyards.

The exhibit runs through Dec. 29. Summer hours are 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday.