Existing comment:
The Rivers Give, the Rivers Take:
Harpers Ferry owes its very being to the Potomac and Shenandoah. Yet even in the heyday of waterpower, the rivers were unruly -- "subject to very sudden and heavy freshets." With every high-water mark, Harpers Ferry has suffered setbacks. Post-Civil War reindustrialization was hampered again and again as floodwaters wrecked mills. In 1924, flooding forever closed the C&O Canal. Bridges swept away during the 1936 flood were not replaced until the late 1940s; ferry service had to be reintroduced.
In many ways, Harpers Ferry has survived in spite of the rivers that originally brought it to life. Since Congress made Harpers Ferry a "public national memorial" in 1944, the National Park Service has reclaimed and restored many buildings damaged by floods, and identified foundations buried by sand and silt. The rivers continue to rise with regularity -- in both 1996 floods five feet of water stood in this room -- but the national park and the town endure. |