Follow along as I explore 184.5 miles of American history, from Appalachia to Washington, D.C.
I was faced with a problem, a problem I never usually have. What should I visit during my time off? Normally, I would have jetted off abroad somewhere, probably somewhere not warm but full of history. However, these are Covid times. Since I’m stuck stateside, I decided to do something I probably wouldn’t ever do in its entirety, follow the entire C&O Canal, and froze my butt doing it because it was February.
Why the C&O Canal? Well, it’s pretty awesome and quite frankly, it was open, which is what basically has been my draw since I started traveling again. If open, will visit.
The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal stretched a total of 184.5 miles from Georgetown in Washington, D.C. to Cumberland, Maryland, following the Potomac River. The canal began life in 1828 as an attempt to connect Washington, D.C. (and the Atlantic Ocean for that matter) to the Ohio River at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. That was too grand of a plan. Plus, the invention of the railroad got in the way. However, the connection to Cumberland proved useful as that was in coal country. Coal was needed to be shipped cheaply down from the mountains to the Eastern Seaboard for the new factories that were springing up in the big cities and for the new railroads.
A ferry full of finely dressed passengers on the canal. Early 20th century.
Several floods and the railroads brought the demise of the canal. Floods often damaged the embankments that separated the Potomac River from the canal and the locks. A disastrous flood happened in 1924 which damaged or destroyed many bridges and lock masonry. After the flood, the railroad company that owned the canal only fixed the Georgetown section and abandoned the rest. The last canal boat floated the entire canal in 1924. Another flood came through in 1936, destroying much that was left behind so that the canal couldn’t be reopened without a lot of restoration. The National Park Service took over the entire C&O Canal route and towpath in 1938.
The C&O Canal’s 184.5 miles contained 74 locks, 11 aqueducts (which carried the canal over other large streams), 240 culverts (to carry the canal over small streams), and a 3,118 ft (950 m) tunnel. No small feat for 1828-1850. Long, narrow canal boats would be floated downstream (if there was current) and pulled upstream by mules. There were also a few rafts and steamboats on the canal.
Canal boat being towed along the C&O Canal by a mule.
But why was a canal necessary for the Potomac, especially after steamboats were invented? Well, the Potomac has rapids and quite a few of them. Canals were built even early around Great Falls of the Potomac (future post). The canal does join the Potomac in a few spots where there wasn’t a spot to build a canal.
Now for some pictures:
The Terminus of the C&O Canal in Cumberland, Maryland. Pictured here is Guard Lock #8, which opened onto the Potomac and fed water into the canal. Today, a railroad crosses over the no longer working lock, which now functions as a dam.
A replica canal boat. Boat workers lived on the boats with their families while they were shipping goods up and down the canal. Sadly, the water soon ends after this point.
Lock 75 was the first lock heading downstream and 605 ft above the level of the Georgetown canal. Lockhouse 75 had to be rebuilt in the 1970s after it got infested by dust beetles. Lockhouses housed the lockkeepers and their families. They were paid a meager wage of a house in exchange of opening and closing the locks for canal boats. They always had to supplement their incomes with gardens and selling supplies to boatmen.
Looking down the canal. Or down. Hard to tell.
Both sides of a stone lock had doors. One would be closed depending on what direction the boat needed to go. Heading downstream, this door would close. Water would be let slowly out so that the boat would drop a couple of feet and the doors would open. Canal boats would have to do that 74 times each direction if they went the entire canal.
While most of the canal itself has silted itself in, especially after all the floods and almost a century of non-use, the Paw Paw Tunnel still exists. It is a 3,118 ft (950 m) shortcut through the mountains, the only section of the canal where leaves the Potomac River. The towpath still runs through the tunnel today, although you will need a flashlight. I also recommend an umbrella.
The towpath (which still does run the full 184.5 miles) leading to the Paw Paw Tunnel. The canal runs on the left of the path. It’s a bit of a walk from the parking lot, especially in fresh snow.
The entrance of the Paw Paw Tunnel. It was boarded up for the winter.
It was super dark in the tunnel. It didn’t help that entrances were boarded up. The tunnel walls were also leaking. Make sure you bring an umbrella.
What a pretty bridge! Well, actually it’s a bridge for the canal, technically an aqueduct. It carried the C&O Canal over the 15 mi Creek.
The top of the 15 mi Creek Aqueduct. You can see how it carried water across. Canal boats were made for shallow water.
This farmhouse was built in 1780, well before the canal came to be built in its front yard in the mid-1830s. The homeowners took advantage by selling goods to the boatmen passing through. Today, it serves as the Hancock C&O Canal Visitor Center.
Lock 52, in front of the farmhouse, was a large double lock system.
A fairly sizable settlement was founded around Four Locks, which was a series of four locks in a row. The settlement supported the canal until its closure. Now the remaining buildings are part of the C&O Canal Park.
This is what Four Locks would have looked like back in the day. In the foreground are drydocks for repairing boats. There’s a lock on the far left of the photo. The men are leaning on the giant gate of the lock.
Some of the houses were kind of fancy.
You can rent some of the canal lockhouses for a trip, which is pretty cool.
Looking up a couple of the locks. Locks 47-50 are here.
Yes, I totally climbed down into a lock. Worth it.
The C&O Canal Dam #5 (a.k.a. Honeywood Dam) was built to retain water for the canal in 1835. On the West Virginia side, a paper mill was constructed as the same time as the dam. In about 1900, the brick building was constructed to hold the paper mill. Now it holds a hydroelectric power plant. Yes, an 1835 dam (rebuilt in stone and modified to retain more water) still generates power for America almost 200 years later. Now that’s reusing what you have.
Lock 44, in Williamsport, featured a fairly large lockhouse. After the canal closed down for business, the lockkeepers and their families stayed in their homes. Some families stayed for decades.
One of the few examples I could find with water in the lock. While in the summer months, you may find water in some locks downstream, they are drained in February.
Another gorgeous aqueduct, the Monocacy Aqueduct over the Monocacy River.
Lockhouse 25. I just thought it was cute.
Lock and Lockhouse 22.
Imagine this view over and over again, just with more water.
The last lockhouse I saw outside of Georgetown was at Lock 8. It featured a climb down a steep trail, a muddy mess and this cute little lockhouse.
Factories lined the canal in Georgetown which used the water and probably dumped stuff into the water as well. There is usually water in the canal here in the summer.
The end of the road, sorry, canal. Lock 1 started at the Tiber Creek which led to the Potomac River. The C&O also near the the terminus of the Washington City Canal that followed the National Mall to the U.S. Capitol Building. Yes, there used to be a malaria ridden canal right through central D.C.
The C&O Canal is a great place to go for a walk or a bike ride (maybe not in the winter though). It’s a 184.5 mi trail! It’s even a great place to find some early American industrial history. Early America was full of canals, but very rarely today can you find any remnants of them. This is a rare treat.
The next two posts will go into in more detail about a couple of the bigger sites I saw along the C&O Canal, Harpers Ferry and Great Falls. So, even more canal posts after this one. Yay!
Check out my next post where I visit the wonderful historic town of Harpers Ferry!
or
Check out more national parks and other public lands!
