Construction begins on the Chesapeake and Ohio…

Construction begins on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal along the east bank of the Potomac River.

George Washington, as the chief advocate of using waterways to connect the Eastern Seaboard to the Great Lakes and Ohio River, had had a large part in its creation, having founded the Potowmac Company in 1785 to make improvements to the Potomac River in order to improve its navigability.

The Potowmack Company had built a number of skirting canals around the major falls including the Patowmack Canal in Virginia.

When completed, it allowed boats and rafts to float downstream towards Georgetown.

Going upstream was a bit harder.

Slim boats could be slowly poled upriver.

The completion of the Erie Canal worried southern traders that their business might be threatened by the Northern canal; plans for a canal linking the Ohio and Chesapeake had been drawn up as early as 1820.

In 1824, the holdings of the Potowmack Company had been ceded to the Chesapeake and Ohio Company.

Benjamin Wright, formerly Chief Engineer of the Erie Canal, had been named Chief Engineer of this new effort, and construction begins with a groundbreaking ceremony on July 4, 1828 by President John Quincy Adams.

The narrow strip of available land along the Potomac River from Point of Rocks to Harpers Ferry causes a legal battle between the C&O Canal and the Baltimore and Ohio (B&O) Railroad in 1828 as both seek to exclude the other from its use.