Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park
National Historical Park · Potomac, Maryland
A hundred and eighty-four and a half miles of canal and towpath along the Potomac from Georgetown to Cumberland, dug between 1828 and 1850 and obsolete before it was finished — the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad broke ground the same day in 1828 and reached Cumberland eight years ahead of it. Seventy-four lift locks, a three-thousand-foot tunnel driven by hand through a mountain, and a flat gravel towpath that is now one of the great long-distance walking and cycling routes in America. It survives because a Supreme Court justice walked the whole length in 1954 to stop it being paved.
11710 MacArthur Boulevard, Potomac, Maryland, 20854, United States
The towpath and grounds are open at all times, year round, and are FREE for almost the entire length — including the hiker-biker campsites. GREAT FALLS CHARGES A PER-VEHICLE ENTRANCE FEE at the Great Falls Tavern entrance; federal passes accepted. Visitor centres keep daytime hours and several are seasonal. ⚠ CHECK THE PARK'S CLOSURE MAP BEFORE ANY TRIP — the Potomac floods and washes out sections of towpath most years, sometimes for months.
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