Canal Components

The Canal Water System was designed to maintain 2-3 mph current, reducing water resistances, and a depths of 6 feet over 184.5 miles.

NPS/Harpers Ferry Center

The Canal Water System was designed to maintain 2-3 mph current, reducing water resistances, and a depths of 6 feet. To sustain those conditions over 184.5 miles through widely varying terrain required a finely coordinated hydraulic system. A series of feeder dams (1) impounded the river water to supply the canal, while the guard locks (2) controlled the amount of water entering the system. Culverts (3) carried streams under the canal. Water backing up at lift locks (4) was routed around them through flumes, maintaing the water level below the lock (5). Excess water could be drained off to the river through waste weirs (6) by the lockkeeper, who was responsible for the water level control structures above and below their lock. When heavy flooding threatened the canal, guard walls and guard gates (7) protected the canal. In the event of a break in the canal embankment or opening of sinkholes in the prism, the stop gates or planks that could be placed across masonary structures above and below it would limit the loss of water to that section.

 

How to get a boat over a creek?

1. Aqueducts - Boats Overhead

Works of art that carry a canal over tributaries like creeks. How did they do it and what challenges did they cause?

Keeps the water from flowing out!

2. Canal Prism - Shape of the Canal

Getting up and down the Potomac River was made possible by a continuous canal. How was the canal prism built and who maintained it?

A new meaning to 'Working from Home"

3. Lockhouses - Home of the Keepers

A place for a lockkeeper a to stay while they fulfill their lockkeeper duties. Who built the lockhouses and how many are there?

How do you get a boat uphill?

4. Lift Locks - Boat Elevators

Lift locks were essential for canal operations, without them the canal couldn't go up or downhill. Why were Lift locks so important?

Moving Goods along the Potomac River

Canallers - Captains of the Canal

An independent bunch with long hour days and little pay. What was their life like on the C&O Canal?

Hired to operate the C&O Canal

Lockkeepers - Keepers of the Canal

Always on-site and available day or night to operate the lift locks. What was the life of a lockkeepers like?