Chesapeake and Ohio Canal
The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, abbreviated as the C&O Canal and occasionally called the Grand Old Ditch,[1] operated from 1831 until 1924 along the Potomac River between Washington, D.C. and Cumberland, Maryland. It replaced the Potomac Canal, which shut down completely in 1828, and could operate during months in which the water level was too low for the former canal. The canal's principal cargo was coal from the Allegheny Mountains.
Chesapeake and Ohio Canal
184.5 miles (296.9 km)
90 ft 0 in (27.43 m)
14 ft 6 in (4.42 m)
74
(Boats must pass guard locks 4 & 5 for each trip.)
National Park
Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company
Charles B. Fisk, William Rich Hutton
1825
1828
1830
1850
1924
Georgetown, Washington, D.C.
(originally Little Falls Branch)
(Canal extended down to Georgetown in 1830)
Cumberland, Maryland
(originally Sections to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)
Alexandria Canal (Virginia), Goose Creek, and Little River Navigation
Construction began in 1828 on the 184.5-mile (296.9 km) canal and ended in 1850 with the completion of a 50-mile (80 km) stretch to Cumberland, although the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad had already reached Cumberland in 1842. The canal had an elevation change of 605 feet (184 meters) which required 74 canal locks, 11 aqueducts to cross major streams, more than 240 culverts to cross smaller streams, and the 3,118 ft (950 m) Paw Paw Tunnel. A planned section to the Ohio River at Pittsburgh was never built.
The canal is now maintained as the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park, with a trail that follows the old towpath.
History[edit]
Early river projects[edit]
After the American Revolutionary War, George Washington was the chief advocate of using waterways to connect the Eastern Seaboard to the Great Lakes and the Ohio River, which flows into the Mississippi River and ultimately to the Gulf of Mexico at New Orleans.[2] In 1785, Washington founded the Potowmack Company to improve the navigability of the Potomac River. His company built five skirting canals around the major falls: Little Falls (later incorporated in the C&O Canal), Great Falls in Virginia, Seneca Falls (opposite Violette's lock), Payne's Falls of the Shenandoah, and House's Falls near Harpers Ferry.[3] These canals allowed an easy downstream float; upstream journeys, propelled by pole, were harder.
Several kinds of watercraft were used on the Patowmack Canal and in the Potomac River. Gondolas were 60 by 10 ft (18 by 3 m) log rafts, usually sold at journey's end for their wood by their owners, who returned upstream on foot. Sharpers were flat-bottomed boats, 60 by 7 ft (18 by 2 m), usable only on high-water days, about 45 days per year.[4]
Many legends have been documented along the canal during its operating days: