The Monocacy Aqueduct was designed by Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Chief Engineer Benjamin Wright and built over four years by 200 men using thousands of tons of cut stone, with Wright ordering the first three piers torn down and rebuilt after finding the early work unsatisfactory. Completed by 1833, the 516-foot aqueduct carried the C&O Canal over the Monocacy River until 1924, bearing thousands of boats, boatmen and mules, and millions of tons of coal and other cargo. Praised for its beauty, economy, and durability, it endured floods, ice freshets, debris, and two failed Confederate attempts to blow it up. After the canal closed, hard use, floods, neglect, and steel braces installed after the 1972 Hurricane Agnes flood altered its appearance and threatened its survival, but a broad preservation partnership led by the C&O Canal Association, later joined by national preservation and engineering groups and supported by public officials, developed a restoration plan and raised funds. After eleven years of work, the aqueduct was preserved and rededicated in 2003 as a lasting link to the ambitions and hopes of those who built and worked on the C&O Canal.
