Paw Paw Tunnel National Park Service

U.S. Department of the Interior

Chesapeake and Ohio Canal

National Historical Park

When work started in June 1836 on the Paw Paw 

Tunnel engineers estimated the work would 

take just two years and $33,500 to complete. 

Labor violence, funding shortfalls, and work 

stoppages slowed construction. Fourteen years 

later when the 3,118-foot tunnel opened, it cost 

more than $600,000. Located at a place called 

Paw Paw Bends, the tunnel eliminated six miles 

of canal. The tunnel was critical to opening the 

canal to Cumberland and the economic success 

of the canal company, and its completion 

remained a high priority for the canal board. 

When the tunnel opened, boatmen jostled to 

get through the bottleneck. Regulating traffic 

at the tunnel and maintaining the structure 

proved difficult throughout the canal’s years of 

operation.

Plan Your Visit

During Your Visit Walk through the Paw Paw Tunnel with 

flashlight in hand so that you can see these 

tunnel features: 

• weep holes - openings left in the brick liner to 

allow for water drainage;

• rope burns - smooth grooves worn in the 

wooden railing by towlines;

• rub rails - wooden planks fastened to the 

brick liner to protect the tunnel liner;

• brass plates - marking each 100 foot distance 

and the location of the vertical shafts. 

Follow the two-mile long Tunnel Hill Trail 

over top the mountain to see where the tunnel 

builders lived during construction. Be advised 

this is a steep and strenuous trail. Bikes are 

prohibited.

How to Get There

Located at milepost 155.2 of the canal, the Paw 

Paw Tunnel is open year-round from daylight 

to dusk. From Cumberland, follow Maryland 

Route 51 south for 25 miles. From Berkeley 

Springs, follow West Virginia Route 9 west for 

28 miles. The tunnel is near the town of Paw 

Paw, West Virginia.

The tunnel entrance is one-half mile down 

stream along the towpath from the parking lot. 

Facilities

Drinking water available seasonally 

(mid-April to mid-November).

Drive-in, primitive camping for a 

fee. 

Contact the Cumberland Visitor 

Center for more information: 

(301) 722-8226. 

www.nps.gov/choh

Largest Structure along 

the Canal

The Section Superintendent’s House is 

located near the parking lot. 

Purslane Cemetery is at Mile 157.4 just 

upstream from the tunnel. Cholera victims 

from epidemics in the 1830s are buried at the 

cemetery. 

Safety Reminders

Carry a flashlight. Wear comfortable shoes.

Towpath surface is uneven and contains 

puddles. Watch your footing and use the 

guardrail as a guide. 

DO NOT climb the steps at either end of 

the tunnel. 

The tunnel and Tunnel Hill Trail are not 

recommended for wheelchair use.

As daylight dwindled to a pinpoint at either end of the tunnel, the steady beat of mule hoofs and the slap of 

displaced water marked a canal boat’s progress. Sometimes music filled the chamber as boat crews sang to hear 

the echoes of their voices or to calm children afraid of the dark. 
Building the Tunnel

Navigating the Tunnel

Lee Montgomery, a Methodist pastor turned 

contractor, hired a crew and began work on the 

tunnel in June 1836. Workers used black powder 

to blast through rock, used picks and shovels, 

and hauled out rubble by horse carts. They 

simultaneously cut from both ends. Vertical 

shafts from the hilltop down to tunnel level 

provided extra working faces in each direction. 

While Montgomery predicted he could bore 

seven to eight feet per day, his crew working 

three shifts daily managed to bore through the 

hard, loose shale just 10 to 12 feet per week. 

Unskilled workmen, rising labor costs, 

poor living conditions, and the slow pace of 

construction led to labor strife at the tunnel. 

Montgomery hired miners from England and 

Wales, and German masons from Pennsylvania. 

Montgomery’s Irish labor force clashed 

with one another and with newcomers who 

competed for their jobs. Tensions escalated 

in 1837, 1838, and 1839 when workers used 

beatings, destruction of property, and other 

forms of physical violence to halt construction. 

Due to lack of funds, work was suspended from 

1842 to 1847. In November 1848, construction 

resumed. The firm of McCulloch and Day 

completed the tunnel quickly. On October 10, 

1850 the tunnel opened for navigation. 

The channel through the tunnel was narrow, 

providing no room for passing or turning. The 

first boat to arrive at either end had the right 

of way. Sometimes stubborn captains refused 

to yield. One standoff lasted several days until 

a company official threw green cornstalks onto 

a roaring fire at the upwind end and forced the 

offenders out with smoke. 

The great increase in canal trade during the 

early 1870s resulted in frequent and lengthy 

delays at the tunnel while the boats waited their 

turn to enter. In 1872, the canal board hired a 

watchman to regulate traffic night and day and 

established rules for boats navigating through. 

Though the board imposed a $10 penalty for 

violating the regulation, the tunnel remained a 

bottleneck for boats. 

Millions of tons of coal, agricultural products, 

lumber, stone, and industrial goods passed 

through the tunnel from Cumberland and her 

hinterlands. In 1875, the canal carried 904,898 

tons of coal alone. 

Maintenance difficulties plagued the canal 

and the tunnel. Just two years after the tunnel 

opened, a major flood damaged the canal. 

Repairs took most of the summer to fix. Rock 

slides in the deep cut below Paw Paw Tunnel in 

November 1857 and the spring of 1858 stopped 

navigation for more than two months. In 1889 

more rock falls at the tunnel and a major flood 

caused extensive damage to the waterway, and 

navigation was suspended for eighteen months. 

Transition to Recreation Throughout the canal’s history, numerous 

floods damaged the towpath, culverts, locks, 

and tunnel. As competition from the railroad 

increased, repairing the canal structures 

proved unprofitable. In 1924, the canal closed 

to commercial shipping. In 1938, the federal 

government acquired the canal for two million 

dollars. 

In 1950, the Bureau of Roads and the National 

Park Service proposed a parkway along the 

canal from Georgetown to Cumberland, 

including a section through the Paw Paw Tunnel. 

Opposition convinced the federal government to 

support a non-motorized recreational trail along 

the old towpath. 

The tunnel was badly deteriorated. The National 

Park Service made major repairs to the tunnel, 

including replacing fallen bricks, filling cavities 

along the towpath, stabilizing rock slides, and 

repairing the façade of the downstream portal. 

Maintenance work continues to allow safe 

passage for today’s hikers and bikers. 

The National Park Service conducted repairs to the 

tunnel in 1956, 1979, and 2007. Above, craftsmen 

repairing the tunnel take a lunch break.

E X P E R I E N C E Y O U R A M E R I C ATM 6/2011