The Paw Paw Tunnel embodied the ability and daring of nineteenth-century canal builders. By cutting a mile-long passage through the mountain, including a 3,118-foot tunnel, the canal avoided six miles of river bends and steep, rocky cliffs. Methodist minister and contractor Lee Montgomery began construction in 1836 with estimates of completion in two years, but labor shortages, financial difficulties, underestimating the cost of the work, and a maze of lawsuits eventually forced him into bankruptcy and stopped work on the tunnel. It was finally completed in 1850, opening the canal from Georgetown to Cumberland. Laborers used what would now be considered primitive tools to dig through 3,118 feet of unstable shale, relying on picks and shovels, wheelbarrows, black powder, mule power, and backbreaking labor. Irish laborers, British and German stonemasons, and workers of a few other nationalities came together to build the canal and tunnel, though clashes occasionally broke out among these diverse groups.
