Chesapeake and Ohio Canal
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
.jpg/250px-Chesapeake_and_Ohio_Canal_National_Historical_Park_(map).jpg)
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
[edit] Early river projects
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. 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.
[edit] Building the canal
In 1824, the holdings of the Patowmack Company were ceded to the Chesapeake and Ohio Company. Benjamin Wright, formerly Chief Engineer of the Erie Canal, was named Chief Engineer of this new effort, and construction began with a groundbreaking ceremony on July 4, 1828 by President John Quincy Adams.
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 Humrickhouse at $1,000 per annum for a daily service of 72 book miles. 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.
[edit] Boom and bust
 |
Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. |
[edit] 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 (35 km) 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 184.5 miles (297 km). 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.
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.
Today the park is a popular getaway for Washington residents. The towpath is popular with bikers and joggers. Fishing and boating are popular in the rewatered portions, and whitewater kayakers tackling the world class rapids of the Potomac sometimes use the canal to shuttle upstream. The park offers rides on two reproduction canal boats, The Georgetown and The Charles F. Mercer, during the spring, summer and autumn. The boats are pulled by mules and Park Rangers in historical dress work the locks and boat while giving a historical program.
[edit] Locks and engineering
|
|
Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. |
[edit] Points of interest
- Mile 000: Rock Creek Park
- Mile 000: Potomac Heritage Trail - on Virginia side of river. (Bikes can use it below Key Bridge.)
- Mile 000: C&O Canal Monument
- Mile 000: Capital Crescent Trail
- Mile 000: Georgetown, Washington, D.C. and Georgetown Visitor Center
- Mile 003: Fletcher's Boat House
- Mile 004: Pimmit Run Trail
- Mile 006: Sycamore Island [1],
- Mile 007: Glen Echo Park (Maryland)
- Mile 012: Old Angler's Inn
- Mile 012: Rockwood Manor Park
- Mile 014: Billy Goat Trail at Great Falls
- Mile 014: Widewater
- Mile 014: Great Falls Tavern Visitor Center
- Mile 020: Pennyfield Lock
- Mile 022: Violette’s Lock (Lock 23) The canal has water in it from here south.
- Mile 022: Riley's Lock/Seneca Creek Aqueduct
- Mile 026: Dierssen Wildlife Management Area & McKee-Beshers Wildlife Management Area
- Mile 035: Poolesville, Maryland
- Mile 035: Norris House Bed and Breakfast
- Mile 035: White's Ferry
- Mile 042: Monocacy Aqueduct
- Mile 048: Point of Rocks, Maryland
- Mile 055: Brunswick, Maryland and Brunswick Visitor Center
- Mile 055: Beans in the Belfry
- Mile 058: Appalachian Trail
- Mile 059: Harpers Ferry Hostel
- Mile 059: River and Trail Outfitters
- Mile 060: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia
- Mile 073: Ferry Hill, West Virginia
- Mile 073: Shepherdstown, West Virginia
- Mile 073: Shepherdstown, West Virginia - Thomas Shepherd Inn B&B
- Mile 073: Sharpsburg, Maryland - Jacob Rohrbach Inn
- Mile 073: Sharpsburg, Maryland - Antietam National Battlefield
- Mile 080: Shepherd's Spring Outdoor Ministries Center
- Mile 100: Williamsport Visitor Center
- Mile 110: McCoy's Ferry - Campground and historic American Civil War crossing
- Mile 112: Fort Frederick State Park; Western Maryland Rail Trail begins
- Mile 124: Hancock, Maryland and Hancock Visitor Center
- Mile 124: Cohill Manor Bed and Breakfast
- Mile 124; Tonoloway Lodge
- Mile 124: Buck Valley Ranch
- Mile 124: Rt. 522 Bridge to Berkeley Springs, West Virginia; Western Maryland Rail Trail diverges
- Mile 140: Town Hill Hotel B&B
- Mile 140: Little Orleans, Maryland
- Mile 141: Little Orleans Lodge
- Mile 143: Green Ridge Hiking Trails
- Mile 151: Paw Paw Tunnel
- Mile 151: the Heritage Trail Bed & Breakfast
- Mile 151: Paw Paw, West Virginia
- Mile 161: Oldtown, Maryland
- Mile 184: Cumberland, Maryland
- Mile 184: The Inn at Walnut Bottom
- Mile 184: Canal Place (Cumberland Visitor Center)
- Mile 184: Hites Bike Shop
- Mile 184: Western Maryland Scenic Railroad
- Mile 184: Alleghany Trail Alliance
[edit] Notes
[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.
- Kapsch, Robert. The Potomac Canal, George Washington and the Waterway West.Morgantown, WV: West Virginia University Press, 2007.
- Kytle, Elizabeth. Home on the Canal, Cabin John, Md.: Seven Locks Press, c. 1983.
- 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.
[edit] External links
- Official National Park Service Site
- The Building of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, a National Park Service Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) lesson plan
- Jack Rottier photographs and papers of the C and O Canal - online images from George Washington University Library.
- The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal
- GPS Landmark Coordinates along the C&O Canal
- C&O Canal Bicycling Guide
- A Virtual Tour of the C&O Canal
- Another Virtual Tour of the C&O Canal
- C&O Canal Association
