Lock 33, across from Harpers Ferry

This image shows Lock 33. The lock house has not yet been built on the river side, so it is unclear where the locktender lived. It is possible that he lived in the stone building nearby.

A feed store was built over the large bypass flume at this lock. Stores were built over the flumes at other locks also, likely because the immediate proximity to the lock made it easier to transfer heavy bags of feed or other items to and from the store and boats in the lock.

In the background is the railroad bridge. After 1862, when the bridge was destroyed in the Civil War, the B&O Railroad began erecting new iron spans designed by Wendell Bollman. By 1870, this Bollman Bridge was completed. Bollman’s iron spans carried the B&O mainline until 1894, and continued to serve as a highway bridge into the 20th century. Floodwaters in 1924 swept away three iron spans, but these were promptly replaced. Twelve years later the record flood of 1936 destroyed this bridge for good.

Since this image shows the incomplete spans of the new Bollman bridge across the Potomac it is believed the photograph is from about 1865.