The , 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 Lock s. To enable the canal to cross relatively small streams, over 150 Culvert s were built. The crossing of major streams required the construction of 11 Aqueduct s (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 .
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. 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. Benjamin Wright , formely 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.
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The abandoned canal was purchased in 1938 by the United States Government, which planned to restore it as a recreation area. Although the bottom 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 . 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.
shops in Washington DC .]]
Presently the park includes nearly 20,000 acres (80 km&2) 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.
See Also: Locks on the C&O Canal
- 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.
- Mile 003: Fletchers Boathouse
- Mile 004: Pimmit Run Trail
- Mile 006: Sycamore Island
- 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 Park
- 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
- 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 Canal 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
- 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
- Mile 184: Hites Bike Shop
- Mile 184: Western Maryland Scenic Railroad
- Mile 184: Alleghany Trail Alliance
- 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. : 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, 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.
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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