Boating Through Time on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal

Canal boat pulled by mules

Photograph from the National Park Service, E.B. Thompson Collection

The mule was the power in front of the movement raw material such as coal and remained one of the main sources of moving boats through out the canals operation. The initial goal of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal was to bring raw materials back to the markets of the east and beyond.

Passenger canal boat.

Photograph from the National Park Service

Like the Erie Canal in New York, one of the C&O Canals purposes was to move people to the western frontier of the Ohio Valley and beyond. The canals role with the expansion west was witnessed by thousands of people like these.

Steam powered Launch

Photograph from the National Park Service

Thought primarily used to transport cargo and people to the Ohio River, individuals have always used the C&O Canal to enjoy the scene and get away from it all.

Boats waiting to offload or cross the Aqueduct, north of Georgetown along Canal Road.

Photograph from the National Park Service

In the early 20th century many canal boat were powered by either steam, coal, or gasoline

Man kayaking and fishing, south of Great Falls, MD

Photographed by: Andrew Easton

The C&O Canal provides water transport, though now only for recreational purposes.