The Schuylkill River, pronounced "skookle" (IPA: ), is an approximately 130 mile (209 km) long river whose watershed of around 2000 square miles (5,000 km²) lies entirely within the state of Pennsylvania. The source of its main branch is Tuscarora Springs, near Tamaqua, Schuylkill County; it becomes one stream at the town of Schuylkill Haven. Wissahickon Creek joins it in northwest Philadelphia, and the Schuylkill joins the Delaware River, of which it is the largest tributary, at the site of the former Philadelphia Navy Yard, now the Philadelphia Naval Business Center, just northeast of Philadelphia International Airport.
The river was named Schuylkill--"hidden river" in Dutch--by its European discoverer, Arendt Corssen of the Dutch West India Company, after its confluence with the Delaware at League Island that was nearly hidden by dense vegetation.
Major towns and cities on the banks of the river include Pottsville, Reading, Pottstown, Phoenixville, Norristown, Conshohocken, and Philadelphia.
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