A loaded canal boat at the Williamsport Lock (Lock 44). The building served as a feed store for the boatmen. The porch of the lockhouse can be seen on the right.
During the day, Harvey Brant watched the canal from a room in the feed store.
LOCK 44 AFTER THE 1889 FLOOD
The 1889 flood broke records for previous floods in the historic period. The same storm that would breach a former canal dam in Pennsylvania to create the Johnstown flood, did enormous damage in the Potomac valley as well. The C&O Canal Company, unable to make the costly repairs, went into bankruptcy and in 1890 the bankruptcy court appointed receivers to repair and operate the canal. The canal would not reopen until September, 1891 and would be operated under the receivership until it closed permanently in 1924.
This photograph must have been taken at some point after the 1889 flood as it shows only the piers for the second vehicle bridge that had been built in 1871 to replace the first bridge that had been destroyed in the Civil War. That bridge would be replaced with a third bridge that would survive until the 1936 flood. Largest of all floods in the Potomac Valley to date, the 1936 flood also took out the lockhouse seen here between the towpath and the river.
This photograph provides an excellent view of the downstream end of a bypass flume that carried water past the lock. To keep the current as minimal as possible, canals are built on a series of levels with locks serving to raise and lower boats where the canal level is changed. However, it is still necessary to maintain a steady supply of water to all parts of the canal and the bypass flumes serve this purpose. Typically located on the berm side (i.e. land vs.
The stone for Lock 38 came from a quarry across the river. The lock was built between September 1832 and September 1833 by Gilson, Noonan, Midler and Fresh and Co. for $7,725.85. However the lockhouse that is partially visible on the left, was not begun until 1837 and not completed until September 1838 at a cost of $1,530.34. As the section of the canal from Dam 5 to Dam 3 opened in 1835, the lockkeeper here would have lived in a temporary structure or in a nearby building until the lockhouse was completed.
This lockhouse was built between the towpath and the river—a position that made it vulnerable to flood waters. Nevertheless, the house survived until the flood of 1936 when it was partially destroyed by a heavy drift. It was built of brick in 1837–38, four years after the lock in front of it was completed. The original house was 20 x 32 feet but at some point an addition had been added to it, as was the case with many of the lockhouses that often proved too small for the families that occupied them.
Ferry Hill, across the river from Shepherdstown, on the top of the hill, was built by John Blackford c. 1813 and was a working farm until the 20th century. Lock 38 was a busy area with traffic from the canal and travelers from West Virginia. The large white house was used as a hotel while down at the lock there was a feed store that was later converted into a bath house before it was destroyed in the 1936 flood.
Mules feeding downstream from lock 38. The water in the canal is very low, so the mules are resting on the tow path, with their troughs nearby. The railroad bridge to Shepherdstown is in the background.
Lock 37 located two and a third miles downstream from the Antietam Aqueduct, is considered one of the most scenic spots along the canal. It was known as Mountain Lock, perhaps because of the beautiful mountain that rises behind it but that required the canal to be built close to the river with rocky cliffs on the berm side for about half a mile downstream. Upstream from the lock is a wide basin for perhaps 75 yards.
At upper lock above Harper Ferry. Maryland Heights in the distance.
The photograph is taken looking down the canal toward lock 35 which is just above the inlet canal from behind Dam 3.