Going Against the Grain

The Potomac River meanders through six miles of bends here, with steep cliffs dropping to the river and making the digging of a ditch canal nearly impossible. The canal company could have followed a natural fold in the rock stratification to burrow the tunnel, but this would have taken them too far from the river. They instead tunneled a short distance diagonally through the rock folds, a decision that led to many cave-ins because of the predominate soft shale they encountered. The river and the rocks here were unforgiving, costing the canal company time and money in its race with the railroads.

Maryland · United States