From collection Parker Dodge Collection
Barging on the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal
View of the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal (C&O Canal, as most refer to it today) in Georgetown, Washington, D. C.,which stretches 184.5 miles to Cumberland, Md., by the time it was completed in 1850.The Canal operated for nearly 100 years, initially serving as the main method of transportation for coal, lumber, and agricultural products as they made their way to markets along the Potomac River. Carrying both cargo and passengers, the Canal boats of the mid-to-late 1800s were pulled by mules who walked along the towpath - harnessed to the boat with ropes.Flooding periodically damaged the Canal and rendered it temporarily inoperable. When another significant flood occurred in 1924, railroads had already revolutionized transportation in the United States, and the waterway closed as a business enterprise.
