Workers removed over 200,000 cubic yards of material up and through vertical shafts as they inched their way forward.
Carved by legions of immigrant laborers, it required dangerous pick-and-shovel handwork between regular black-powder blasts. Constructionīuilt between 18 to bypass five dramatic and cliff-laden horseshoe bends in the nearby Potomac River, the Paw Paw Tunnel was a magnificent feat of engineering for its time. Those on foot can hike back over the tunnel via the aptly-named Tunnel Hill Trail and see great views of the Potomac River. Today, the tunnel is a popular place for photographers due to the many original weep holes, rope burns, rub rails, and original brass plates that bring the tunnel’s history to life. While the western entrance has been modified, the eastern entrance remains as it looked when canal boats and mules approached from distant Little Orleans. The tunnel lining is made of over six million bricks that have stood the tests of time and weather since the tunnel’s opening in 1850. The towpath narrows inside the unlit tunnel, so it’s best for bicyclists to dismount and travel slowly. At 3,118 feet, the Paw Paw Tunnel is the longest man-made structure on the C&O Canal Towpath, and on the entire Pittsburgh-to- Washington, D.C.
0 kommentar(er)
