The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, abbreviated as the C&O Canal and occasionally called the Grand Old Ditch,"The Grand Old Ditch: the C&O In American Transportation History " operated from 1831 until 1924 along the Potomac River between Washington, D.C., and Cumberland, Maryland. It replaced the Patowmack 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.
Construction began in 1828 on the canal and ended in 1850 with the completion of a stretch to Cumberland, although the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad had already reached Cumberland in 1842. The canal had an elevation change of which required 74 canal locks, 11 aqueducts to cross major streams, more than 240 culverts to cross smaller streams, and the Paw Paw Tunnel. A planned section to the Ohio River in 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 Early river projects 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.Hahn, Pathway, 1. 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, which was 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.Kytle p. 10 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 log rafts, usually sold at journey's end for their wood by their owners, who returned upstream on foot. Sharpers were flat-bottomed boats, , usable only on high-water days, about 45 days per year.Kytle, p. 12
Construction
Planning
The Erie Canal, built between 1817 and 1825, threatened traders south of New York City, who began to seek their own transportation infrastructure to link the burgeoning areas west of the Appalachian Mountains to mid-Atlantic markets and ports. In 1820, plans began being made for a canal to link the Ohio River and Chesapeake Bay.
In early March 1825, President James Monroe signed the bill chartering the construction of the C&O Canal as one of the last acts of his presidency. p.63 The plan was to build it in two sections, the eastern section from the tidewater of Washington, D.C., to Cumberland, Maryland; and the western section over the Allegheny Mountains to the Ohio River or one of its tributaries. Free from taxation, the canal company was required to have in use in five years, and to complete the canal in 12 years.Kytle p. 20 The canal was engineered to have a water current, supplying the canal and assisting mules pulling boats downstream.Kytle p. 25
The eastern section was the only part to be completed.Bearss, Edwin C, The Composite Locks, NPS, 1968, p. 57
On October 23, 1826, the engineers submitted the study, presenting the proposed canal route in three sections. The eastern section comprised Georgetown to Cumberland; the middle section, Cumberland (going up Wills Creek to Hyndman then across the Sand Patch Grade crossing the Eastern Continental Divide to GarrettAccording to the Army Engineers report in 1874–75, the B&O Railroad mainline from Cumberland to Pittsburgh follows the route originally surveyed for the canal. See Hahn, Pathway. 258–259) to the confluence of the Casselman River and the Youghiogheny River; and the western section from there to Pittsburgh.Unrau p. 55 SectionDistanceAscent & Descent# of LocksCostEastern185 Mi 1078 Yds578 Feet74$8,177,081.05Middle70 Mi 1010 Yds1961 Feet246$10,028,122.86Western85 Mi 348 Yds619 Feet78$4,170,223.78Total:341 Mi 676 Yds3158 Feet398$22,375,427.69
The total estimated price tag, more than $22 million, dampened the enthusiasm of many supporters, who were expecting an estimate in the $4 million to $5 million range. At a convention in December 1826, they attempted to discredit the engineers' report, and offered lower estimates: Georgetown to Cumberland, $5,273,283; Georgetown to Pittsburgh, $13,768,152. Geddes and Roberts were hired to make another report, which they gave in 1828: $4,479,346.93 for Georgetown to Cumberland.Unrau p. 56 With those numbers to encourage them, the stockholders formally organized the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company in June 1828.Unrau, Harland D. Historic Structure Report the Culverts, Historical Data. National Park Service, Denver Colorado, January 1976. p. 6-7 In the end, the final construction cost to Cumberland in 1850 was $11,071,075.21. Compared to the original cost given by the engineers in 1826 of about $8 million, removing things not in the estimate such as land purchases, engineering expenses, incidental damages, salaries, and fencing provision, the cost overrun was about 19%, which can be justified by the inflation rate of the period. The cost overrun of the other proposal (Geddes and Roberts) was about 51%Unrau p. 105 thus showing that the original engineer's estimate was good.
In 1824, the holdings of the Patowmack Company were ceded to the Chesapeake and Ohio Company. (Rejected names for the canal included the "Potomac Canal" and "Union Canal".Hahn, Towpath Guidep. 7) By 1825, the Canal Company was authorized by an act of the General Assembly of Maryland in the amount of subscriptions of $500,000; this paved the way for future investments and loans. According to historians,J. Thomas Scharf, "History of Baltimore City and County", published 1881, reprinted 1971 those financial resources were expended until the State had prostrated itself on its own credit.
Groundbreaking The C&O's first chief engineer was Benjamin Wright, formerly chief engineer of the Erie Canal. A groundbreaking ceremony was held on July 4, 1828, attended by U.S. president John Quincy Adams. The ceremony was held near Georgetown, at the canal's eventual mark near Lock 6, the upstream end of the Little Falls skirting canal, and Dam No. 1.Hahn, Towpath Guide p. 27On the same day, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad set its "First Stone" with the aging, sole surviving Signer of the Declaration of Independence, Charles Carroll of Carrollton.
At the groundbreaking, there was still argument over the eastern end of the canal. The directors thought that Little Falls (at the downstream end of the Patowmack Little Falls Skirting Canal) was sufficient since that literally fulfilled the charter's condition of reaching the tidewater, but people in Washington wanted it to end in Washington, connecting to the Tiber Creek and Anacostia river.Kytle p. 27 For that reason, the canal originally opened from Little Falls to Seneca, and the next year, was extended down to Georgetown.
The Little Falls skirting canal, which was part of the Patowmack Canal, was dredged to increase its depth from , and became part of the C&O Canal.
The first president of the canal, Charles F. Mercer, insisted on perfection since this was a work of national importance. This would cost the company more money to build the canal. During his term, he forbade the use of slackwaters for navigation, the use of composite locks (see section below), or reduction of the cross section of the canal prism in difficult terrain. This reduced maintenance expenditures but increased construction costs.Unrau p. 25 In the end, two slackwaters (Big Slackwater above Dam No. 4, and Little Slackwater above Dam No. 5) and multiple composite locks (Locks 58–71) were built.
At first, the canal company planned to use steamboats in the slackwaters, since without mules, the canal boats had to use oars to move upstream. After much discussion of the dangers of early steamboats, the company provided a towpath so that the mules could pull the boats through the slackwaters. p. 45
Section numbers and contracts From Lock 5 at Little Falls to Cumberland (as mentioned above, the canal started at Little Falls, and was later extended down to Georgetown), the canal was divided into three divisions (of about apiece), each of which was further divided into 120 sections of about . A separate construction contract was issued for each section.Hahn Towpath p. 60-61 Locks, culverts, dams, etc. were listed on the contracts by section number, not by mileage as is done today. For instance, Locks 5 and 6 are on Section No. 1,Unrau p. 227 all the way to Guard Lock No. 8 on section 367.Unrau p. 239 Sections A–H were in the Georgetown level below lock 5
First part opened In November 1830, the canal opened from Little Falls to Seneca.Kytle, p. 84 The Georgetown section opened the following year.
Dispute for Point of Rocks; second part opened In 1828, the C&O Canal and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) began fighting for sole use of the narrow strip of available land along the Potomac River from Point of Rocks to Harpers Ferry. After a Maryland state court battle that involved Daniel Webster and Roger B. Taney, the companies agreed to share the right-of-way.
In August 1829, the canal company began importing indentured laborers to Alexandria and Georgetown. These workers were promised meat three times a day, vegetables, and a "reasonable allowance of whiskey", $8 to $12 per month, $20 for masons. Still, many were dissatisfied with the slave-like conditions. Friction between the largest groups, from Ireland and Germany, meant they had to be kept in different crews.Kytle p. 33-34
The width of the canal prism above Harpers Ferry was reduced to , which saved money and was also appropriate from an engineering standpoint.Unrau, Canal Prism, p. 43
In 1830, Francis Scott Key left his Georgetown home due to the newly opened canal, which ran through his back garden.
In 1832, the canal company prohibited liquor in a bid to improve the speed of construction, but soon repealed its ban.
In AugustKytle p. 43 or September 1832, an epidemic of cholera swept through the construction camps, killing many workers and leading others to throw down their tools and flee.Unrau, Canal Prism, p. 42
By 1833, the canal's Georgetown end was extended eastward to Tiber Creek, near the western terminus of the Washington City Canal, which extended through the future National Mall to the foot of the United States Capitol. A lock keeper's house at the eastern end of this Washington Branch of the C&O Canal remains at the southwest corner of Constitution Avenue and 17th Street, N.W., at the edge of the National Mall.Coordinates of lock keeper's house:
In 1834, the section to Harper's Ferry opened and the canal reached Williamsport.Kytle p. 84
In 1836, the canal was used by canal packets as a Star Route to carry mail from Georgetown to Shepherdstown. The contract was held by Albert Humrickhouse at $1,000 per annum for a daily service of 72 book miles. The canal approached Hancock, Maryland, by 1839.Hahn, Pathway, 6.
In March 1837, three surveys were made for a possible link to the northeast to Baltimore: via Westminster, via Monocacy-Linganore, and via Seneca, but they were all deemed impractical due to lack of water at the summit level.Unrau p. 41
The Canal reached Dam No. 6 (west of Hancock) in 1839.