Transportation
Paw Paw Tunnel, a 3,118-foot passage on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal near Oldtown, Maryland, was built to avoid the winding Paw Paw Bends of the Potomac River. Approved in 1836, the project began under Lee Montgomery and was expected to be quick and inexpensive, but violence among its diverse labor force, along with financial and construction troubles, caused long delays. Although tunneling broke through in 1840, work did not fully resume until 1848, and the tunnel opened in 1850 at a cost that nearly bankrupted the canal company. It shortened the canal by six miles and became one of the canal’s most important and celebrated engineering works.
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Maryland · United States
