MD -- C&O Canal NHP -- Mile 155.2 -- Paw Paw Tunnel:
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- Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
- PAW_040417_028.JPG: This is the trail to the tunnel. The canal itself is on the left. It's not always filled with water these days.
- PAW_040417_065.JPG: You can see the mountain they had to dig through here.
- PAW_040417_067.JPG: Breaking Through a Mountain
The Paw Paw Tunnel stands as a monument to the ability and daring of the 19th century canal builders. By building the mile-long cut through the mountain, including the 3,118-foot tunnel, the canal avoided six miles of river bends and steep, rocky cliffs.
Methodist minister and contractor Lee Montgomery began construction in 1836, with estimates of completion in two years. Labor shortages, financial difficulties, underestimating the cost of the work, and a maze of lawsuits eventually forced Montgomery into bankruptcy. Work on the tunnel stopped. In 1850, the tunnel was finally completed, opening the canal from Georgetown to Cumberland.
Using what we would consider primitive tools, laborers dug through 3,118 feet of unstable shale. Picks and shovels, wheelbarrows, black powder, mule power, and backbreaking labor built the tunnel.
Irish laborers, British and German stonemasons, and a few other nationalities came together to build the canal and tunnel. Occasionally, there were clashes between these diverse groups.
Notes:
(1) Surveyors used simple instruments to keep the digging on a true course.
(2) Blasting the unstable shale with unpredictable black powder was dangerous business; injuries and deaths were commonplace.
(3) Two shafts were sunk in an effort to speed the work. This enabled workers to dig from four directions.
(4) Excavated material was dumped in the hills surrounding the tunnel.
- PAW_040417_082.JPG: Bruce Guthrie @ Paw Paw Tunnel
- PAW_040417_094.JPG: Margot Lebow @ Paw Paw Tunnel
- PAW_040417_135.JPG: These folks asked us to take their picture using their camera and I volunteered to take some with mine and e-mail them to them. A few days later, their camera was found downtown with my business card and someone volunteered to return it to me but I had no idea what their names were so they ended up with nothing.
- PAW_040417_229.JPG: Paw Paw Tunnel
- PAW_040417_305.JPG: Since it's shale, entire chunks like this have broken off periodically. This particular chunk is 15 to 20 feet in length. I have no clue what it weighs or how much effort it would have taken to remove it if the canal was still in operation.
- PAW_040417_312.JPG: Margot Lebow @ Paw Paw Tunnel
- PAW_040417_418.JPG: Margot Lebow @ Paw Paw Tunnel
- Wikipedia Description: Paw Paw Tunnel
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Paw Paw Tunnel is a 3,118 ft. (950.37 m.) long canal tunnel on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, which runs along the Maryland side of the Potomac River. Though surpassed by many tunnels today, it remains one of the world's longest canal tunnels and was one of the greatest engineering feats of its day.
The nearby town of Paw Paw, West Virginia and the tunnel take their common name from the pawpaw trees that grow prolifically along nearby ridges.
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