Aqueducts on the C&O Canal

Aqueducts on the C & O Canal

       Here's a wiki link on the subject:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aqueducts_on_the_C%26O_Canal

            Poster's comments:

            The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal was started in the mid-1820's, or so I think. At the same time the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad started, and in the end it won out as a way to go west, and make money, too.

            Both were intended as a way to travel for people and goods, and cross the Allegany Mountains as part of the process.

            The C&O Canal made it up to Cumberland Mountain in Maryland before it quit. In other words, it never made it to Pittsburg.  It ended operations in 1924, or so I believe.

            Now there is interesting history along the way, including the Civil War breaches of the Canal.  Basically, all the water into the canal came out of the Potomac River, too.

            One of the Supreme Court Justices (Douglas)  had much to do with preserving it when the National Park Service wanted to pave it over in the 1950's. Even in the 1960's it was still pretty primitive (I biked it twice, like all 184.5 miles of it).  These days it is pretty much a National Treasure.

            Last, there are many other canals also built, mostly in Virginia, with remnants still easy to see from the various rivers. Even our first President, George Washington, had a canal built on the Virginia side of the Great Falls of the Potomac River. So this area is still nifty to many.