![]() Thru-riders will need to use the Tunnel Bypass Trail until improvements are completed. Work is anticipated to extend until as late as mid-2022. However, the towpath just downstream is CLOSED due to the Paw Paw Tunnel Scaling Project, a project that will stabilize sliding rocks on the interim slopes at the north portal of the tunnel. Paw Paw Tunnel Scaling Project - The Paw Paw Tunnel is currently OPEN. Today, the Paw Paw Tunnel is maintained by the National Park Service and is used by thousands of hikers and bikers each year. The tunnel builders consisted primarily of miners from England and wales, German masons from Pennsylvania, and Irish immigrants.īuilding the tunnel was undoubted one of the most important 19th-century engineering feats in the life of the C&OCanal, just as the canal itself was part of the overall establishment of trade and transportation routes in the early days of our nation. Just upstream from the tunnel isPurslaneCemetery, at mile 157.4, one of many sites in the surrounding region where tunnel workers and their families are buried as a result of the cholera epidemics in the 1830s. In the field adjacent to the parking area, you will see the Section Superintendent’s house, and along the towpath, you may find the native Paw Paw trees (Asimina triloba) with their unique and delicious fruits. Outside the tunnel, you can follow the two-mile-long, steep tunnel Hill Trail over the top of the ridge to see where the tunnel builders lived during construction. You can also find other features such as weep holes -openings left in the brick liner to allow for water drainage rub rails - wooden planks fastened to the brick liner to protect the tunnel liner and brass plates - these mark every 100 feet of distance and the location of the tunnel’s vertical shafts. The Paw Paw Tunnel is a 3,118-foot-long canal tunnel on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal in Allegany County, Maryland. Constructed between 18 as part of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, it runs 185 miles from Culpepper, Maryland, to Washington, DC. You can feel the rub along the fence railing where the tow ropes burned into the wood as the mules dragged the boats along the water below. The second-oldest surviving transportation tunnel in the U.S. You will be able to see and experience a number of features inside the tunnel. Even on the sunniest of days, the openings at both ends of the tunnel reduce to pinpoints as you make the 20-minute walk through the center of the tunnel. But if you plan to visit, bring a flashlight. Located at mile-post 155.2 of the canal, the Paw Paw Tunnel is open year-round from daylight to dusk. At 24 feet high, it is the largest manmade structure on the C&O Canal and is lined with more than 6 million bricks. Stretching from Georgetown to Cumberland, the canal was used as a way to transport rich natural resources such as iron ore, coal, and timber, from the West to the Eastern Seaboard, which fueled the development of the canal. Named the Paw Paw Tunnel, it was dubbed by American promoters as a wonder of the world. ![]()
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