The first attempt(the Pawtomack Canal, begun in 1790 or so and finished in the 1800s) was just inefficient and flood-prone and was not really navigable a lot of the time because it was a skirting canal-it didn't really cover ground so much as get around some of teh nastier rapids. It got folded into the C&O Canal in the 1820s-30s after a while of not really being a strong venture(this was before the Erie Canal). Interestingly, the C&O was supplemented by the railroad while and after it was being built(which took ages) but still managed to turn a decent business* especially in shipping coal from Western Maryland but also lime, until first the railroad's operations improved enough to undercut canal fares(in the 1870s) and then it became too expensive to repair due to floods(the last coal shipment being in 1924). Even today a few miles of the canal is kept watered for tourists and some pleasure-boat rides are offered. This has been your Nightly Canal Facts.
*And was doing well enough that its operators could afford major capital improvements, like a project to allow boats to bypass one terminus with an Inclined Plane at the Georgetown end).
*And was doing well enough that its operators could afford major capital improvements, like a project to allow boats to bypass one terminus with an Inclined Plane at the Georgetown end).