Chesapeake and Ohio Canal

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Canal at Swain's Lock
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Canal at Swain's Lock

The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, abbreviated as the C&O Canal, and occasionally referred to as the "Grand Old Ditch," operated from 1836 until 1924 parallel to the Potomac River in Maryland from Cumberland, Maryland to Washington, DC. The total length of the canal is about 184.5 miles (300 km). The elevation change of 605 ft (185 m) was accommodated with 74 canal locks. To enable the canal to cross relatively small streams, over 150 culverts were built. The crossing of major streams required the construction of 11 aqueducts (10 of which remain). The canal also extends through the 3120 ft (950 m) Paw Paw Tunnel. The principal cargo was coal from the Allegheny Mountains. The canal way is now maintained as a park, with a linear trail following the old towpath, the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park.

Contents

[edit] History

Civilian Conservation Corps workers restoring the canal in 1939
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Civilian Conservation Corps workers restoring the canal in 1939

George Washington had a large part in its creation. Washington founded the Potowmack Company in 1785 to make improvements to the Potomac River in order to improve its navigability. In 1836, the canal was used as a Star Route for the carriage of mails from Georgetown to Shepherdstown using canal packets. The contract was held by Albert Humrickshouse at $1,000 per annum for a daily service of 72 book miles. The Patowmack Company built a number of skirting canals around the major falls including the Patowmack Canal in Virginia. When completed, it allowed boats and rafts to float downstream towards Georgetown. Going upstream was a bit harder. Slim boats could be slowly poled upriver. The completion of the Erie Canal worried southern traders that their business might be threatened by the Northern canal; plans for a canal linking the Ohio and Cheasapeake were drawn up as early as 1820. In 1824, the holdings of the Potowmac Company were ceded to the Chesapeake and Ohio Company. Construction began with a groundbreaking ceremony on July 4, 1828 by President John Quincy Adams.

In 1843, the Potomac Aqueduct Bridge was constructed near the present-day Key Bridge to connect the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal to the Alexandria Canal which led to Alexandria, Virginia.

In the 1870s, a canal inclined plane was built two miles upriver from Georgetown, so that boats whose destination was downriver from Washington could bypass the congestion in Georgetown. The inclined plane was dismantled after a major flood in 1889 when ownership of the Canal transferred to the B&O Railroad, which operated the canal to prevent its right of way (particularly at Point of Rocks) from falling into another railroad's hands. Operations ceased in 1924 after another flood.

Canal boat on the C&O Canal, near Great Falls.
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Canal boat on the C&O Canal, near Great Falls.

[edit] Creation of national park

The abandoned canal was purchased in 1938 by the United States Government, which planned to restore it as a recreation area. Although the bottom 22 miles of the canal were repaired and rewatered, the project was halted when the United States entered World War II and resources were needed elsewhere. After the war, Congress expressed interest in developing the canal and towpath as a parkway. However, the idea of turning the canal over to automobiles was opposed by some, including United States Supreme Court Associate Justice William O. Douglas. In March 1954, Douglas led an eight-day hike of the towpath from Cumberland to D.C. Although 58 people participated in one part of the hike or another, only nine men, including Douglas, hiked the full 182 miles. Popular response to and press coverage of the hike turned the tide against the parkway idea and, on January 8, 1971, the canal was designated a National Historical Park.

A view of the C&O canal from behind the Georgetown shops in Washington DC.
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A view of the C&O canal from behind the Georgetown shops in Washington DC.

Presently the park includes nearly 20,000 acres (80 km²) and receives over 3 million recorded visits each year. Flooding continues to threaten historical structures on the canal and attempts at restoration. The Park Service has rewatered portions of the canal, but the majority of the canal does not have water in it.

[edit] Locks on the canal

Main article: Locks on the C&O Canal

[edit] C&O Points of Interest by Canal Mile Marker

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  • Life on the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal, 1859 [York, Pa. : American Canal and Transportation Center, 1975]
  • Achenbach, Joel. The Grand Idea : George Washington's Potomac and the Race to the West , Simon and Schuster, 2004.
  • Blackford, John, 1771-1839. Ferry Hill Plantation journal : life on the Potomac River and the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, 4 January 1838-15 January 1839 2d ed. Shepherdstown, W. Va. : [American Canal and Transportation Center], 1975.
  • Camagna, Dorothy. The C&O Canal: From Great National Project to National Historical Park, Belshore Publications, 2005.
  • C and O Canal Association. Food and Lodging along the Towpath.
  • Cotton, Robert. The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Through the Lens of Sir Robert Cotton
  • Fradin, Morris. Hey-ey-ey, lock! Cabin John, Md., See-and-Know Press, 1974
  • Furtney, Charles Tyrconnel: An Antebellum Adventure Along the C&O Canal

Website for book

  • Gutheim, Frederick. The Potomac. New York: Rinehart and Co., 1949.
  • Hahn, Thomas F. The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Lock-Houses and Lock-Keepers (ISBN 1-885907-03-6). Lots of illustrations 105 pp. $15.00 postpaid for $15.00 to ACTC PO Box 310 Shepherdstown WV 25443-0310.
  • Hahn, Thomas F. The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal: Pathway to the Nation's Capital. Metuchen, NJ: The Scarecrow Press, 1984.
  • Hahn, Thomas F. Towpath Guide to the C&O Canal: Georgetown Tidelock to Cumberland. Shepherdstown, WV: American Canal and Transportation Center, 1985.
  • High, Mike. The C&O Canal Companion, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001.
  • Kapsch, Robert and Kapsch, Elizabeth Perry. Monocacy Aqueduct on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. Medley Press, 2005.
  • Kytle, Elizabeth. Home on the Canal Cabin John, Md. : Seven Locks Press, c1983.
  • Mackintosh, Barry. C & O Canal : the making of a park Washington : U.S. Dept. of the Interior, National Park Service, History Division, 1991.
  • Martin, Edwin. A Beginner's Guide to Wildflowers of the C and O Towpath, 1984.
  • Mason-Dixon Council, Boy Scouts of America, 184 Miles of Adventure: Hiker's Guide to the C&O Canal. P.O. Box 2133, Hagerstown, MD 21742, 1983.
  • Mulligan, Kate. Canal Parks, Museums and Characters of the Mid-Atlantic, Wakefield Press, Washington, DC, 1999.
  • Mulligan, Kate. Towns along the Towpath, 1997. (Available from C &O Association) Here is Chapter 3 about Seneca.
  • National Park Service, Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park Washington, DC: NPS Division of Publications, 1991.
  • Rada, James Jr. Canawlers, Legacy Press, 2001.

Historical Fiction.

  • Reeder, Carolyn. Captain Kate. Avon Books, 1999
  • Sabatke, Mark. Discovering the C&O Canal, Rockville, Schreiber Publishing, March 2003.
  • Sanderlin, Walter S. The Great National Project: A History of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins Press, 1946.
  • Stanton, Richard. Potomac Journey, Fairfax Stone to Tidewater, Smithsonian Press, 1993.
  • Ward, George W. The Early Development of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Project
  • Winslow, Barbara. Samantha goes to Georgetown on the C & O Canal
  • Wolfe, George "Hooper." I Drove Mules on the C and O Canal, 1969.
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