Largest of all floods in the Potomac Valley to date, the 1936 flood damaged the lockhouses and locks along the canal. The lockhouse at Lock No. 38, with the brown roof appearing here in the river, was located between the canal and the river. Unrau reported that this lockhouse was partially destroyed when a heavy drift knocked in its northwest corner.
DAM NO. 5 HYDRO STATION WITH WATER STILL RISING
THE ORDINARILY WELL BEHAVED POTOMAC GOES ON A RAMPAGE
ONCE UPON A TIME THERE WERE BRIDGES ACROSS THE POTOMAC & SHENANDOAH AT HARPERS FERRY
GREENSPRING REALLY KNEW HIGH WATER
WHEN WATER REACHED THE TIE TREATING PLANT OF THE B & O AT GREENSPRING
AFTER THE RIVER FINISHED WITH THE CACAPON HYDRO STATION
B &O YARDS &-HIGHWAY BRIDGE BRUNSWICK
CENTER ST CUMBERLAND
THE WATER GOES 'ROUND AND 'ROUND CUMBERLAND
Dam No. 4 received serious damage during the flood. Earlier on February 27 an ice drift had carried away a section of the dam near the Maryland abutment. The March flood widened the break, and when the water subsided it was found that the gap started at a point about 45 feet from the Maryland abutment and averaged 55 feet in width. The guard bank at the dam was little damaged, but the cross bank at the nearby stop lock was more seriously affected. Both approaches to Guard Lock No. 4 were destroyed. The lockhouse at Lock No. 41, which had withstood the 1889 freshet, was swept away.
Bridges at Williamsport, Maryland
Kelly's Studio and Camera Shop, Hagerstown Md.
3-19-1936
Made with Fairchild Aerial Camera
A-3
The Potomac Edison power plant was forced to shut down and the town was plunged into darkness. Pictures of the 1936 flood show the river up to the Route 11 bridge, covering the River Bottom and reaching to the base of the Bollman Bridge (West Salisbury Street, entrance to River Bottom). This photograph shows the power plant, now the R. Paul Smith Power Station, surrounded by the waters of the Potomac River.
Lula Brant Harsh was the daughter of the last lock keeper at Lock 44, near Williamsport. She reported in an interview in the Cracker Barrel.
I don't know how many floods we lived through. I don't know why we put up with it because the canal closed in '24. We only had to pay $1 a year to live there after the canal closed but we had to do our own papering, painting and repairs, anything that needed done to the house.
The Cushwa warehouse, near the confluence of the Conococheague and Potomac, Williamsport.
The photograph was given to the Western Maryland Room by Nelson Hause. It is unknown if that annotation on the photograph was written by Mr. Hause.
The annotation reads, left to right.
Car (of) lumber,
Shed that we tied the car too.
and to the right of Cushwa warehouse - this building left at 11 AM.
The back of the photograph reads:
A view across the Conococheague Creek to the Victor Cushwa and Sons Brick plant. Note the round kilns, the tall drying room, and the overhead conveyor.
This Kelley photograph taken from the church steeple in Williamsport shows the Potomac River and the Rt 11 bridge. The house on the far bank where the bridge reaches the West Virginia shore is Maidstone-on-the-Potomac. It was built by Evan Watkins, who operated Watkins Ferry on the Potomac.
The Conomac Park (from Conococheague and Potomac) closed after this flood in 1936
Conomac Park at Williamsport was inundated as the high water of the Potomac backed up the normally narrow Conococheague river. Box cars on the Western Maryland tracks and several houses were completely inundated.