⁴ᴷ⁶⁰ Walking Washington, DC: Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Towpath in Georgetown

Описание: August 16, 2022 - 5:00 PM
81°F / 27°C

Walking westbound on the towpath at the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, DC from Rock Creek Park to Francis Scott Key Memorial.

From Wikipedia:
The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, abbreviated as the C&O Canal and occasionally called the "Grand Old Ditch," operated from 1831 until 1924 along the Potomac River between Washington, D.C., and Cumberland, Maryland. It replaced the Potomac 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 on the 184.5-mile (296.9 km) canal began in 1828 and ended in 1850 with the completion of a 50-mile (80 km) stretch to Cumberland, although the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad had already reached Cumberland in 1842. Rising and falling over an elevation change of 605 feet (184 meters), it required the construction of 74 canal locks, 11 aqueducts to cross major streams, more than 240 culverts to cross smaller streams, and the 3,118 ft (950 m) Paw Paw Tunnel. A planned section to the Ohio River at Pittsburgh was never built.

The canalway is now maintained as the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park, with a trail that follows the old towpath.