Chesapeake & Ohio Canal - The Bridges
Bearss EC. 1961. Chesapeake & Ohio Canal - The Bridges. National Park Service, Office of Archeology and Historic Preservation
History of the bridges of the C&O Canal, from Georgetown to Cumberland. Officials of the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal Company in 1828, the year construction started, were determined to drastically limit the number of bridges crossing the waterway. President Charles F. Mercer on November 12, 1828, outlined this policy in a letter to Resident Engineer W. M. C. Fairfax. In marking the line of the canal, the surveyors were to keep in mind that the Board of Directors, at a recent meeting, had determined that it would be detrimental to future operations if there were numerous bridges across the canal. It was hoped that there would be no need for bridges above Georgetown. Where roads now crossed the line of the canal, it was planned to utilize flat-bottomed ferryboats. Such a scheme would leave the entire canal, except the Georgetown Level, unobstructed by bridges.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Bearss, Edwin
- Date of Issue
- 1961-01-31
- Publisher
- National Park Service, Office of Archeology and Historic Preservation
- Units
- CHOH , HIST
- Keywords
- Canal Bridges, Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, Cultural Resources, ehistory