C&O Canal, Paw Paw Tunnel, MD
Posted by: 
garmin_geek
N 39° 33.040 W 078° 27.782
17S E 717981 N 4380960
3,118 foot long manmade tunnel for the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal and tow path.
Waymark Code: WM5QCZ
Location: Maryland, United States
Date Posted: 02/02/2009
Views: 23
The Paw Paw Tunnel is a 3,118 feet (950 m) long canal tunnel in Maryland on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, which was built to bypass the Paw-Paw bends, a six-mile stretch of the Potomac River containing five horseshoe bends. Construction on the tunnel began in 1836, and the tunnel was not completed until 1850. Although it was originally planned to be completed in two years, there were many difficulties in the process of construction. The construction company seriously underestimated the difficulty of the job. Violence frequently broke out between various gangs of immigrant laborers of different ethnicities, and wages were often unpaid due to the company's financial problems. The tunnel was finally completed with a cost overrun of 500%. 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. (Wikipeda)
Canal Trust (
visit link)
NPS site (
visit link)