BGuthrie Photos: MD -- C&O Canal NHP -- Mile 155.2 -- Paw Paw Tunnel

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:
1. PAW_120602_016.JPG: Paw Paw Tunnel: The single largest structure along the length of the C&O Canal is the Paw Paw Tunnel. The fourteen year construction project at Paw Paw (1836-1850), provided a shortcut for the canal through Sorrel Ridge. This project tested both the laborers and the finances of the canal company. The 3,118 foot long tunnel was built using picks, shovels, and black powder and is lined with approximately 6 million bricks.
2. PAW_120602_024.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. Hand Labor: 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.
3. PAW_120602_204.JPG: Paw Paw Tunnel Hill Trail: Walk in the footsteps of the Irish and German laborers who built the Paw Paw Tunnel. Follow a portion of the access road they travelled [sic] to get to labor housing and work camps near the vertical shafts on the top of the mountain. Enjoy Potomac River vistas, explore nature and connect with Green Ridge State Forest at the trail summit. The Tunnel Hill Trail is two miles long, steep and strenuous. Use caution when hiking on the trail and watch your footing in areas with loose stone and steep embankments. Stay on the designated trail. Do not take bikes on Tunnel Hill Trail.
4. PAW_120602_214.JPG: Stones and Cones: You are looking down on "the big cut," a lengthy area at the north end of the mountain that had to be excavated for the canal to reach the tunnel. Sorrel Ridge is made up primarily of Braillier Shale. This shale is a brittle stone that was difficult to cut through and could easily crumble and fracture. The tunnel builders needed to install a thick brick liner inside the tunnel so stone would not come down on the boatmen and mule teams. Cone-bearing pines or conifers thrive in this area because they have shallow roots and do well in the rocky soil.
5. PAW_120602_231.JPG: The Dual Organism -- Lichens: The silvery patches on the ground and the gray-grey stains spreading across boulders are types of living organisms called lichens. Often confused with mosses, lichens are actually two organisms working together. Algae produce nutrients and fungi provide the root system. This relationship is called symbiosis. Help protect these slow-growing organisms by staying on the trail.
6. PAW_120602_245.JPG: Schoolhouse Site: Little remains of the one-room brick Sulphur Spring School, also known as Tunnel Hollow. The school opened here in 1840 for the children of local families and canal workers. While a majority of the tunnel builders left family behind and lived alone at the work site, some had their wives and children living here. The schoolhouse might have looked like this one.
7. PAW_120602_253.JPG: The Tunnel Builders: Imagine if you came to this remote site just after arriving off the boat from Europe. The Irish and German workers who built the Paw Paw Tunnel were housed at this location in simple tents and small wooden houses, provided food and a ration of whiskey daily. In return they worked in difficult and sometimes hazardous conditions. The laborers faced cholera epidemics, financial shortages affecting when and if they got their pay, and friction among co-workers that led to labor riots. For fourteen long years from 1836 to 1850, work continued to complete the Paw Paw Tunnel.
8. PAW_120602_260.JPG: Spoil and Vertical Shafts: The tunnel builders hauled out over 200,000 cubic yards of shale spoil from inside the Paw Paw Tunnel through two sets of double vertical shafts and from the northern tunnel approach via the access road leading to the top of the mountain. They later capped off the shafts on top of the mountains and bricked over the shaft openings inside the tunnel. The large ravine or hollow visible here was filled with this spoil.
9. PAW_120602_288.JPG: Forest Layers: From the top canopy of oaks and maples to the understory of redbud and dogwood, the distinct zones of plant life determine the variety of wildlife. Acorns provide food for deer, squirrels, and turkeys; while the understory offers shelter and nesting areas for small woodland animals and birds.
10. PAW_120602_292.JPG: Potomac River Buffer Zone: The C&O Canal National Historical Park and Green Ridge State Forest combine to provide a wide buffer zone at this part of the Potomac River. The 46,000 acre state forest stretches north from the national park boundary towards the Mason-Dixon Line, creating a protective border for the river. Potomac River buffer zones help limit run-off and erosion, provide wildlife habitat, and allow safe space for rare flowers and plants to grow.
11. PAW_120602_297.JPG: Top of Sorrel Ridge: From 362 feet above the runnel, you look down on the 46,000 acre Green Ridge State Forest, the second largest state forest in Maryland. The forest is made up primarily of deciduous, hardwood trees such as maple, oak, and beech. The Mertens family owned a large portion of what is now Green Ridge State Forest and had a boat building yard at the C&O Canal terminus in Cumberland, Maryland.
12. PAW_120602_301.JPG: Building Through the Bends: Canal engineers were uncertain as to the best option for building the canal through the Paw Paw Bends, a looping section of the Potomac River. They considered three options -- build along the river, use the river for slack water navigation, or construct a tunnel through the mountain, a five mile shortcut. Chief Engineer Charles B. Fisk favored the tunnel option.
13. PAW_120602_305.JPG: Paw Paw, West Virginia and the Paw Paw Bends: Across the Potomac River is the small community of Paw Paw, West Virginia. The town, the Paw Paw Bends, and the Tunnel were named for the pawpaw trees that grow in abundance along the Potomac. Named by Native Americans, the pawpaw is a fruit tree that produces and edible fruit.
14. PAW_120602_326.JPG: Paw Paw Tunnel Hill Trail: Walk in the footsteps of the Irish and German laborers who built the Paw Paw Tunnel. Follow a portion of the access road they travelled [sic] to get to labor housing and work camps near the vertical shafts on the top of the mountain. Enjoy Potomac River vistas, explore nature and connect with Green Ridge State Forest at the trail summit. The Tunnel Hill Trail is two miles long, steep and strenuous. Use caution when hiking on the trail and watch your footing in areas with loose stone and steep embankments. Stay on the designated trail. Do not take bikes on Tunnel Hill Trail.
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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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Directly Related Pages: Other pages with content (MD -- C&O Canal NHP -- Mile 155.2 -- Paw Paw Tunnel) directly related to this one: [Display ALL photos on one page]:
- 2006_MD_Paw_Paw: MD -- C&O Canal NHP -- Mile 155.2 -- Paw Paw Tunnel (54 photos from 2006)
- 2004_MD_Paw_Paw: MD -- C&O Canal NHP -- Mile 155.2 -- Paw Paw Tunnel (42 photos from 2004)
- 2003_MD_Paw_Paw: MD -- C&O Canal NHP -- Mile 155.2 -- Paw Paw Tunnel (16 photos from 2003)
- 2000_MD_Paw_Paw: MD -- C&O Canal NHP -- Mile 155.2 -- Paw Paw Tunnel (16 photos from 2000)
- 1998_MD_Paw_Paw: MD -- C&O Canal NHP -- Mile 155.2 -- Paw Paw Tunnel (34 photos from 1998)
Same Subject: Click on this link to see coverage of items having the same subject: [(NPS) C&O Canal NHP] [Display ALL (NPS) C&O Canal NHP photos] [Natural Beauty] [Park (National Park Service)] [Transportation (Water)]
2012 photos: Equipment this year: My mainstays were the Fuji S100fs, Nikon D7000, and the new Fuji X-S1. I also used an underwater Fuji XP50 and a Nikon D600. The first three cameras all broke this year and had to be repaired. Trips this year: three Civil War Trust conferences (Shepherdstown, WV, Richmond, VA, and Williamsburg, VA), a week-long family reunion cruise of the Caribbean, another week-long family reunion in the Wisconsin Dells (with lots of in-transit time in Ohio and Indiana), and my 7th consecutive San Diego Comic-Con trip (including side trips to Zion, Bryce, the Grand Canyon, etc). Ego strokes: I had a picture of Miss DC, Ashley Boalch, published in the Washington Post. I had a photograph of the George Segal San Francisco Holocaust memorial used as the cover of Quebec Francais (issue 165). Not being able to read French, I'm not entirely sure what the article is about but, hey! And I guess what could be considered to be a positive thing, my site is now established enough that spammers have noticed it and I had to block 17,000 file description postings for Viagra and whatever else.. Number of photos taken this year: just below 410,000.
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