Maryland Panhandle - The Most Scenic Drives in America: 120 Spectacular Road Trips - page 982

The Monocacy Aqueduct on the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal
7. Cumberland
BeyondLaValetheroadsqueezesbetweenthesheer1,000-footbluffsofCumberlandNar-
rows, then slides into Cumberland, an alluring town of historic red-brick buildings nestled
in the mountains. Here in the early 1750s, George Washington, as a young lieutenant in
the French and Indian War (his cabin stands in Riverside Park), dreamed of a magnificent
canalthatwouldcarrygoodsbetweenthefrontierandthecoast.Heneverhadthechanceto
build it, but the idea took form in 1828, when President John Quincy Adams broke ground
(and, some say, the shovel) in Washington, D.C., and work was begun on the Chesapeake
&OhioCanal.Thecanaloperatedfornearlyacentury,itshuskymulesploddingbesidethe
waterwaywithlow-slungboatsintow.Butthemulesandcanalboatswerenomatchforthe
sleek engines of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (the nation's first), which came barreling
up and over the mountains and eventually signaled the demise of the canal in 1924 after
partsofitfellvictimtoflooddamage.Todaythelastlocktobebuiltbeforeallhopesforthe
canal were dashed stands down by the Potomac in Cumberland and has been transformed