After yesterday's 13k walk, we opted for the 6k walk on this final day of the FreedomWalk Festival.
Immediately after walking across Key Bridge, we descended to the towpath of the C & O Canal. The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, occasionally referred to as the "Grand Old Ditch," operated from 1831 until 1924 parallel to the Potomac River from Cumberland, Maryland, to Washington, D.C. The total length of the canal is about 184.5 miles (296.9 km). The elevation change of 605 ft (184 m) was accommodated with 74 canal locks. To enable the canal to cross relatively small streams, over 150 culverts were built. The crossing of major streams required the construction of 11 aqueducts. The canal also extends through the 3,118 ft (950 m) Paw Paw Tunnel. The principal cargo was coal from the Allegheny Mountains. The canal way is now maintained as a park, the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park, with a linear trail following the old towpath.
After passing a few locks, we arrived at the C&O Canal Visitors Center and the checkpoint. We continued along the towpath through Georgetown, passing old buildings and brand new ones on both sides of the canal.
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| A lock and a canal barge |
The canal towpath ended at Rock Creek Parkway and we walked up to Pennsylvania Avenue. After a few blocks we reached the campus of George Washington University and walked right past the George Washington University Hospital - where I was born!
Continuing through the Foggy Bottom neighborhood, we passed the Watergate complex and the Kennedy Center. Our route continued over the Roosevelt Bridge to a bike trail on the Arlington side of the Potomac.
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| View towards Georgetown from the Roosevelt Bridge |
Walk Route: B+
Walk Instructions: A
Thanks once more for your delightful commentary, and we are so glad you came for the walks. I probably saw you Sunday, too, at the C&O Canal checkpoint. Several years ago, hubby and I decided to walk the entire 184.5-mile towpath since a local volksmarch club got the walk sanctioned for credit and sectioned the distance into reasonable segments. It took all year to walk the segments as we had time, and the most challenging was the Paw Paw tunnel. We had to position a car at each end of our segments, and for Paw Paw we had to choose whether to drive 100 miles all the way around to the other end or drive a MUCH shorter distance on a tiny, poorly marked forest road navigating by Gazeteer (pre-GPS for us). We chose the forest road, and that drive is part of the good memories of the walk.
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