Editing Chesapeake and Ohio Canal (section)

====Last 50 miles====
[[file:Cumberland_Boatyard_Chesapeake_and_Ohio_Canal.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Boat construction yard in Cumberland, MD]]
Building the last {{convert|50|mi||abbr=|adj=on}} segment proved difficult and expensive. [[Allen Bowie Davis]] took on the role of management.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Monumental City: Its Past History and Present Resources|author=George Washington Howard|page=648}}</ref> In Cumberland, [[Cumberland Dam|Dam No. 8]] and Guard Lock No. 8 had begun construction in 1837<ref>[[#Unrau|Unrau]] pp. 239, 242</ref> and the final locks (70–75) to Cumberland were completed around 1840.<ref>[[#Unrau|Unrau]] p. 237</ref> That left an {{convert|18.5|mi||abbr=|adj=on}} segment in the middle, which would eventually require building the Paw Paw tunnel, digging the deep cut at Oldtown, and building 17 locks.<ref name="Bears20">{{cite web|url=http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/choh/composite.pdf|title=The Composite Locks|author=Edwin C. Bearss|publisher=[US Department of the Interior, National Park Service]|access-date=2013-05-24|archive-date=2013-07-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130713233303/http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/choh/composite.pdf|url-status=live}} p.20</ref>

Near Paw Paw, the engineers had no good solutions. If they followed the river, they would have to cross over to West Virginia to avoid the cliffs, and an agreement with the B&O Railroad specified that the canal would avoid the south side of the river, unless it was a place where the railroad would not need it. So they took the more expensive decision to build a tunnel through the mountain.<ref>[[#Kytle|Kytle]] p. 53-54</ref> The initial cost estimate of $33,500 proved far too low.<ref name="nps.gov">{{Cite web |url=http://www.nps.gov/choh/upload/pawpawbrochure_final.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2013-05-15 |archive-date=2012-10-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121025141348/http://www.nps.gov/choh/upload/pawpawbrochure_final.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> The tunnel was completed for $616,478.65<ref>[[#Unrau|Unrau]] p. 251</ref> Among the components of the project, a kiln was built to provide bricks to line the tunnel.<ref>[[#Unrau|Unrau]] p. 174 ff</ref>

[[Image:Map of Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Terminus at Cumberland Maryland in mid 1890s.svg|200px|right|thumb|Map of Terminus in Cumberland in the mid 1890s. Yellow dots indicate modern highways as well as current (2013) location of Canal basin.]]
Originally, the company intended to go around Cumberland, behind the town of Wills Creek, but complaints from the citizens and the city caused the board to change their plans, routing the canal through the center of town.<ref>[[#Unrau|Unrau]] p.207, 208</ref>

The canal was opened for trade to Cumberland on Thursday, October 10, 1850.<ref>Bearss p. 57</ref> On the first day, five canal boats, ''Southampton, Elizabeth, Ohio, Delaware'' and ''Freeman Rawdon'' loaded with a total of 491 tons of coal, came down from Cumberland. In one day, the C&O carried more coal in the first day of business than the [[Lehigh Canal]] for their full year of business in 1820.<ref>[[#Kytle|Kytle]] p. 64</ref>

Yet in 1850, the B&O Railroad had already been operating in Cumberland for eight years, and the Canal suffered financially.<ref name="Bears20"/><ref name="mack1">[[#mackintosh-making|Mackintosh]], 1.</ref> Debt-ridden, the company dropped its plan to continue construction of the next {{convert|180|mi|km}} of the canal into the Ohio Valley.<ref name="hahn7"/> The company long realized (especially with the experience at the Paw Paw tunnel) that construction over the mountains going to Pittsburgh was "wildly unrealistic".<ref>[[#Kytle|Kytle]] p. 61, note #10</ref> Occasionally there was talk of continuing the canal, e.g. in 1874, an {{convert|8.4|mi||abbr=|adj=on}} long tunnel was proposed to go through the Allegheny Mountains.<ref>[[#hahn-pathway|Hahn, Pathway]]. 257</ref> Nevertheless, there was a tunnel built to connect with the Pennsylvania canal.<ref>[[#davies|Davies]] p. ix. Davies does not indicate if this tunnel was ever used, nor its location.</ref>

Even though the railroad beat the canal to Cumberland, the canal was not entirely obsolete. It wasn't until the mid-1870s that improved technology, specifically with larger [[Steam locomotive|locomotives]] and [[Railway air brake|air brakes]], allowed the railroad to set rates lower than the canal, and thus seal its fate.<ref>[[#davies|Davies]] p. ix</ref>

Sometime after the canal opened in 1850, a [[Chesapeake and Ohio Canal commemorative obelisk|commemorative obelisk]] was erected near its Georgetown terminus.