C&O Canal Towpath Trail

Now settled back into real life at home, I’m starting to get ready for a 185 mile bike ride from Cumberland, MD to Washington, DC along the towpath of the old Chesapeake & Ohio (C&O) Canal.

As originally envisioned in 1820, the C&O Canal would run from the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Potomac River all the way to the Ohio River in Pittsburg. President James Monroe signed a bill in March of 1825 chartering the construction of the canal. There would be two sections, the relatively flatter eastern section from Washington DC to Cumberland, MD and the more mountainous western section from Cumberland to Pittsburgh. The Army Engineers drew up plans in the Fall of 1826 and broke the western section in two due to topography.

Supporters and speculators of the project expected the cost of the entire project to be around $5 million. When the Army Engineers submitted their estimates, the total was closer to $22 million; $8 million alone for the DC to Cumberland section. The supporters and speculators were disappointed with this higher figure. So they did what speculators will do and commissioned a second study, and when that estimate was too high, a third study. The third study came in with a cost of about $4.5 million for the DC to Cumberland section. So with that more optimistic number, the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company was formed in June 1828 and construction began.

Ultimate it would take 22 years and $11 million to complete the eastern section from DC to Cumberland. Accounting for inflation and incidental costs not included in the original estimate, the Army Engineer’s estimate in 1825 of $8 million was nearly spot on. When the directors of the project were interrogated about this discrepancy and why the lower cost estimate was used they wrote, “A body of men, however, upright and intelligent, are easily satisfied of what they greatly wish to believe.” Words that seem prescient of our present era.

The western sections from Cumberland to Pittsburgh were never built. By the time the eastern section was completed to Cumberland in 1850, the B&O railroad had been serving that community for 8 years. So the canal, meant to move all types of goods from west of the Allegheny Mountains to the coast, was basically obsolete by the time it was half finished. However, for the first few decades the canal was cheaper to operate than the railroad, so there was some competition. When, in the 1870’s, more powerful locomotives were developed the railroad could beat the canal in both price and speed, eventually dooming the canal. But somehow the canal did continue to operate moving mostly timber and coal until 1924. Financially on its death bed by the 1920’s, a flood in 1924 destroyed locks, a dam, bridges, and walls and masonry on stretches of the canal that spelled the end of the C&O as a transporter of goods.

So endth a brief history of the C&O Canal, except to say that the National Park Service purchased the canal in 1938, thus saving it from oblivion. More next week on the ride I’m doing with my son and the prep for same.

Until next week, Happy Trails…