Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park

The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal began as a dream of passage to western wealth. It operated as a conduit of eastern coal, suffered extensive and finally fatal flooding, and then resisted being paved as a highway. Today it endures as a national historical park – a pathway into history, nature, and recreation.

Canals: The Great National Project

The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal is a link to a time when America’s prosperity depended upon its waterways. During the late 1790s and early 1800s, the United States experienced an unparalleled period of canal construction that continued through the middle of the century and slowed only when railroads began to come of age. More than 3,000 miles of canals were built during this period. Canals were a vital part of American life. They carried goods and supplies from coastal areas inland and aided the migration of people heading west to settle beyond the original 13 colonies. May types of goods were shipped on canal boats, ranging from fine cloth and china to lumber, grain, hay, and the building block of the industrial revolution, coal.

By the middle of the 19^th century, railroads had outpaced the canals, and the canallers’ unique way of life began to fade out of existence. Today all that remains of most of these great waterways are crumbling lock gates and towpaths wandering alongside the filled-in ditches that once made up the canals. In some cases these vital reminders of our past have been preserved and afford glimpses of what life might have been like on America’s early canals. The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal is one of those reminders.

Ohio Canals Groundbreaking

The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal had its beginning on July 4, 1828, when President John Quincy Adams broke ground for what was then called the "Great National Project" – a canal that would stretch from Georgetown, near Washington, D.C., to Pittsburgh, Pa., and connect two great waterways, the Chesapeake Bay and the Ohio River. It had long been a dream of speculators like George Washington and others to be able to tie the inland area of the Potomac River basin to the coastal plain. Unfortunately the job was made very difficult by the river’s rocky and shallow nature. An earlier attempt to build a canal on the Virginia side of the river had met with only marginal success and the idea was discarded. But, with the advent of the canal era, speculators’ dreams began to come alive again and the idea for the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal was born.

With ground-breaking ceremonies concluded, construction proceeds. Original construction estimates stated that the 460-mile-long canal would take 10 years to build and costs about $3 million. Money problems, labor difficulties, disease epidemics, and the rivalry of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, which began construction the same day as the canal, made it impossible to maintain the schedule. By the time the canal was completed in 1850, it had taken 22 years and $13 million to build, and fell far short of its intended destination of Pittsburgh, terminating instead at Cumberland, Md.

Obsolete Canal

The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal was already obsolete at the time it was finished, for the railroad had made great strides in those same 22 years and arrived in Cumberland eight years earlier. Nevertheless, the canal remained in operation for 74 years, from 1850 to 1924. Boats pulled by mules floated tons of cargo – coal, hay, hydraulic cement, fertilizer, anything that could be put on a boat – from Cumberland to Georgetown. Unfortunately for the men and women who made their living on the canal, it was a way of life that was dying out due to progress in other forms of transportation and shipping, lack of money, and unpredictable variations in the weather. The canal was finally closed in 1924 after several devastating floods had sent the canal into receivership.

The canal sat neglected until the early 1950s when Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas led a march to save it and the towpath from demolition. Today, as a national historical park the canal preserves both history and nature along its 184.5-mile length. From tidewater at Georgetown in Washington, D.C., to Cumberland on the Allegheny Plateau, it winds through the Piedmont, past the dramatic Great Falls of the Potomac, and then through the ridge-and-valley section of the Appalachian Mountains. Its rich floodplain forests are gifts of the river’s frequent floods.

US National Parks Visitors Centers

Additional information about the canal and its history is available at the following visitor centers along the waterway. Hours vary seasonally, so please call ahead for times and schedules.

Georgetown Visitor Center is located at 1057 Thomas Jefferson Street NW, Washington, D.C. Phone 202-653-5190.

Great Falls Tavern Visitor Center at 11710 MacArthur Blvd., Potomac, Md., was first built as a locktender’s house and later expanded. Exhibits illustrate the history of the canal and area. Phone: 301-767-3714.

Brunswick Visitor Center at 40 West Potomac Street contains exhibits highlighting the transportation history of the town of Brunswick from early ferry service to the predominance of the railroad. Phone: 301-739-4200.

Williamsport Visitor Center is located at 205 West Potomac Street in this historic canal town. The nearby Cushwa warehouse and basin on the canal are perfect locations to delve into its history. Phone: 301-582-0813.

Hancock Visitor Center, located at 326 East Main Street just outside this historic canal town, offers a variety of displays on the history of the canal and its operations. Phone: 301-678-5463.

Cumberland Visitor Center is located in the Western Maryland Railroad Station at 13 Canal Street and offers extensive exhibits on the transportation history of Cumberland, including the National Road, the railroad, and the canal. Phone: 301-722-8226.