C&O Canal National Historical Park

Text

The C&O Canal Company was chartered in 1825, the same year as the opening of the Erie Canal. The groundbreaking was celebrated by President John Quincy Adams at Little Falls in 1828. The canal was completed to Seneca by 1830, to Rock Creek by 1831, to Harper's Ferry by 1834, and to Cumberland by 1850. Four Aquia Creek sandstone locks were built in Georgetown in 1830 by contractor Dibble, Beaumont & McCordin.

The canal was used as a source of water mill power from 1837 and reached peak tonnage in 1871. The canal included the world's largest boat incline, used for lowering barges to the Potomac River near Georgetown, which was completed in 1876 but destroyed by flood in 1889.

The canal served as the major commercial artery in the Potomac Valley. Along the canal, significant quantities of food, fuel, and building materials were transported to supply the growing national capital. As a result, an adjacent business district was created and expanded, and many of these businesses utilized the canal for water resources.

The C&O Canal ceased commercial operations after a 1924 flood. It was acquired by the Department of the Interior as a historic site in 1938.

By the 1950s, many individuals saw the canal as an artifact of days gone by and wanted to build a scenic highway along the Potomac River, layered directly over the canal itself. Yet one man, Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, worked to defend the integrity of the canal, which he had grown up with as a child and continued to hike into his adulthood. Through community organizing, the support of conservation groups, and Douglas's status as a Supreme Court Justice, the National Park Service dismissed the idea of a scenic highway in 1956. 

Justice Douglas continued to organize community hikes and lobby for the preservation of the canal throughout the 1960s, with his efforts culminating in the designation of the C&O Canal as a National Historical Park in 1971. The park was dedicated to Mr. Douglas, the "man who saved the canal."

The Georgetown Historic District includes a portion of the C&O Canal Historic District and a portion of the national historical park, which extends to Cumberland, Maryland.

DC Listing: November 8, 1964 (Joint Committee on Landmarks)
DC Inventory: January 23, 1973
National Register: October 15, 1966
National Monument (prior to National Historical Park designation): 1961
Designated as National Historical Park: January 8, 1971
National Register (Boundary Increase): February 3, 2015