Cumberland Terminus: Yesterday and Today

Independence Day, July 4, 1828, became an important day for Cumberland, Maryland, when the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad both broke ground far to the east in a race whose finish line was the Ohio River and whose prizes were markets for coal, lumber, and farm goods. The canal followed the Potomac River for 184.5 miles, gaining 605 feet in elevation from Georgetown to Cumberland as it headed for Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The railroad reached Cumberland in 1842, and the canal finally arrived in 1850. Although the canal never linked with the Ohio River and was beaten by the railroad and financially exhausted by floods before closing in 1924, for 74 years it provided an outlet for local products and labor and helped build Cumberland into Maryland's second-largest city, rivaled only by Baltimore. Coal from the surrounding mountains rode the rails to meet canal boats at Cumberland, and boatmen towed it downstream to Georgetown in about a week's journey, while many Cumberland residents made a living by building and repairing boats or working at Footer's Dye Works.

Cumberland, Maryland · United States