This image is part of the Thompson Family of Canaan Valley Collection. The Thompson family played a large role in the timber industry of Tucker County during the 1800s, and later prospered in the region as farmers, business owners, and prominent members of the Canaan Valley community.View of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal.
Maryland Heights Across Potomac River at Harpers Ferry, Va, (W. Va.)
Date:
ca. 1862
Description:
Maryland, the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal and a reconstructed Baltimore and Ohio Railroad bridge on the Potomac River as viewed from the Harpers Ferry cemetery. Note the head stones in the foreground and the smoke stack of the burned out United States Armory below. The photograph was taken during the Civil War.
'The Canal as shown from the Maryland side of the Potomac bridge. The canal out of operation since the floods of 1924 is 194 miles long and was originally build 1828-50 to connect Cumberland, Md.. near the head of the Alleghany divide with tidal navigation at Alexander, Va. The course of the Potomac was followed and the flow of water was regulated by locals. The boat drawn by mules made about three miles per hour and the chief item of freight was coal. The canal was once an important artery of traffic but was worsted in competition with the B. & O. Railroad.'
