March 2001 NUMBER1
C & 0 Canal Association concerned with the consetvation of the natural and historical environment of the C & 0 Canal and the Potomac River Basin VOLUME XXXIII March 2001 NUMBER1 THE CHESAPEAKE & OHIO CANAL THIS YEAR'S DOUGLAS MEMORIAL HIKE Walking through History Along the Canal's First 10 Miles CONSTRUCTION AND OPENING HISTORY fascinating aspects of the canal in Georgetown, including the two canals the C&O had connections to there, will be discussed Last fall we celebrated the 150th anniversary of the Chesa in my talk after the hike banquet. peake and Ohio Canal reaching its western terminus at Cum The initial construction history of the locks on this part of berland and this spring the Douglas Hike appropriately features the canal is complex. Locks 1 through 4 were begun in June the eastern terminus. Here the canal makes a dramatic 10 mile, and July 1829, and completed in April 1831, by contractor Dib 14-lock climb from tidewater at Georgetown, past the first wa ble, Beaumont and McCord. But the contracts let in October terfalls of the Potomac, and into the Maryland piedmont. In 1828 to several different contractors, for locks 5 through 14, terms of history, topography and engineering, perhaps no other were replaced by new contracts on 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12, 13, and 14 ten-mile section of the canal is as significant or as filled with the next year. Despite the difficulties with the initial contractors things to look at and learn about. for these locks, by September 1830, locks 5 through 14 were Surprisingly, neither Georgetown nor Rock Creek was the completed and in October 1830, the first boat passed from the intended eastern terminus when construction of the canal was Little Falls area to Seneca, thus initiating service on the first started.
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