Thompson 70

This picture is of a loaded canal boat on its way to Georgetown to unload its cargo of coal. In the early years of the canal agricultural shipments dominated the canal but after 1850 when the canal reached Cumberland and the coal mines of western Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania, coal would dominate the waterways.

Occasionally when the boat was loaded the boatman used a tow pole to keep the tow line higher. Notice the pole at the front of the boat (Hooper Wolfe)