The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal
Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, a waterway extending along the north bank of the Potomac River between Washington, D.C., and Cumberland, Maryland. Its total length is 184 miles (296 km). The canal was begun in 1828 and completed to Cumberland in 1850. It never reached the intended goal, the Ohio River, because railroad competition made further construction economically impractical. Traffic on the canal was heaviest in the 1860's. Commercial use of the waterway ended in 1924.
The federal government bought the canal in 1938. In 1961 it was proclaimed a national monument; in 1971 the canal and adjacent land were made a national historical park.