Description
An ambitious project in our nation’s early days, the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal was built alongside the unnavigable Potomac River as a commercial waterway to reach the west. Doomed almost from the start by the railroad, then put out of business altogether by the river flooding, it is now a treasured recreational spot by cyclists, hikers, canoeists, and others with technological wonders of its time and natural beauty to behold. (For a related class, see #322.)