This path began in 1804 as a tow road on the eastern bank of the canal, where laborers using long wooden poles, ropes, or mules moved loaded barges carrying shingles, lumber, corn husks, and other staples along the canal, and records note a shipment of brandy as the first to travel down the canal on a boat under its own power. When the canal was widened in 1896, parts of the original towpath were destroyed to make room for the wider channel, shifting the road in some areas. The original corduroy road, a log road over a low and swampy area, was paved in 1920, and in 1934, when drawbridges were built on U.S. Route 17/George Washington Highway at Deep Creek and South Mills, it was widened from 20 to 30 feet. In 2003, after the new portion of U.S. Route 17 opened, the road became the Dismal Swamp Canal Trail. Its deeper past also reaches back to George Washington, whose survey company charted parts of the Great Dismal Swamp, leaving his namesake in Washington Ditch. In the 1960s, travelers could ride this shaded stretch with views of the canal beneath overhanging trees, and because it was so dark, many called it the Tree Tunnel, where signs told drivers in both directions to turn on their lights.