Inside the Paw Paw Tunnel which is 3/4 mile long canal bypass under a mountain. The towpath is the hike/bike trail while you can kayak the canal itself. Both recommend either a good flashlight or a bright bicycle light (I had both, plus I was fairly nearly the south end).
Taken on Saturday October 28, 2023 at C&O Canal Towpath.I thought it was Robert Kennedy’s 50 mile hike in February 1963 that kicked off it’s preservation, but actually it’s a quarter century older then that with the intention to become a park.
It was President Franklin Roosevelt’s administration that purchased the it from the B&O Railroad in 1938 with the intention of turning it into a park. The World War got in the way, and it was stuck on a back burner to becoming an official National Park, until on Dwight Eisenhower’s last day in the White House in 1961 he designated it National Historic Landmark.
In February 1963, Attorney General Robert Kennedy and several other Kennedy staffers on the President John F. Kennedy’s challenge did a 50 mile hike on trail. But it was still just a National Historic Landmark until 1971 upon the lobbying of then former Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas it was upgraded to a National Park.
Now, the entire Canal is well signed and a excellent gravel bike path from Washington DC to Cumberland MD.
A fairly extensive history on the creation of the C&O Canal National Park.
Here is an aerial photo of the Paw Paw Tunnel.
The curve that is famous for all the truck crashes In Cumberland, MD. They even have a wall to catch rolling over semi-trucks.
Cumberland is a city in and the county seat of Allegany County, Maryland, United States. It is the primary city of the Cumberland, MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area. At the 2010 census, the city had a population of 20,859, and the metropolitan area had a population of 103,299. Located on the Potomac River, Cumberland is a regional business and commercial center for Western Maryland and the Potomac Highlands of West Virginia.
Historically Cumberland was known as the "Queen City", as it was once the second largest in the state. Because of its strategic location on what became known as the Cumberland Road through the Appalachians, after the American Revolution it served as a historical outfitting and staging point for westward emigrant trail migrations throughout the first half of the 1800s. In this role, it supported the settlement of the Ohio Country and the lands in that latitude of the Louisiana Purchase. It also became an industrial center, served by major roads, railroads, and the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, which connected Cumberland to Washington, D.C. and is now a national historical park. Today, Interstate 68 bisects the town.
The industry declined after World War II, which led much of the later urban, business and technological development in the state has been concentrated in eastern coastal cities. Today the Cumberland, MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area is one of the poorest in the United States, ranking 305th out of 318 metropolitan areas in per capita income
Interstate 68 aka the National Freeway has a 70 MPH speed limit until you reach a steep 6% descent and head down to Cumberland from Allegany Grove and then it makes a very sharp left turn to avoid the North Branch of Potamac River and downtown Cumberland on an narrow elevated highway, which was built to replace the old US 48 through Maryland. The speed limit is reduced to 40 MPH, and to a driver unfamiliar with this stretch, even 40 MPH seems fast, with 15 MPH exits that dump directly onto city streets.
This section of highway is quite infamous for serious crashes, including one that burned part of the downtown. On June 1, 1991, a gasoline tanker descending into downtown Cumberland from the east attempted to exit the freeway at exit 43D, Maryland Avenue. The tanker went out of control and overturned as the driver tried to go around the sharp turn at the exit. Gasoline began to leak from the damaged tanker, forcing the evacuation of a three-block area of Cumberland. Approximately 30 minutes later, the tanker exploded, setting eight houses on fire. The fire caused an estimated $250,000 in damages (equivalent to $590,000 in 2016), and prompted MDSHA to place signs prohibiting hazardous materials trucks from exiting at the Maryland Avenue exit.
Taken on Saturday October 21, 2017 at Cumberland, MD.