Evening star., 1952-09-07
State Would Provide
81 10 S6 Million 10
Buy Right Of Way
By Rudolph Kouffmonn II


The future of the Maryland
banks of the Potomac River up
stream from Washington may be
decided within the next six
months.
The question. which in the end
will be decided largely by the atti-
tude of Maryland voters and their
General Assembly, is this:
Should Maryland. by buying ad-
ditional ht-of-way, take advan-
tage Of an offer by the Federal
Government to build a recreatlonal
parkway over the route of the old
C. & o. Canal from Great Falls
to Cumberland?
In terms of money. the offer
means the Federal Government
would put up its present canal
holdings, purchased in 1923 for
50 million. 1t would spend another
SIT million to build the road.
Maryland, for its part, would put
up an amount ranging from So
million to Sc million-depending
on who's doing the estimating-to
buy 11,060 acres of additional
right-of-way. Maryland presum-
ably also would have to spend an
unspecified but relatively minor
amount to hook up its own road
system with the parkway.
Idea Began in 1888.
Actually the proposal, in idea
form. has been before the public
since the canal was bought by the
United States in 1898. In it's pres
ent form. it has been available for
public inspection since August.
1850.
At that time National Park
Service Director Newton B. Drury
and Public Roads Commissioner
Thomas H. Macdonald reported
to Congress that the parkway was
a sound proposition in the opinion
of their planners and engineers
AS with all such projects,
healthy controversy followed
forthwith. Maryland sought to
analyze the project and determine
if it would prove an asset or lia-
bility to the State. -
The proposal now has articulate
proponents and opponents with
the general public wavering on
the sidelines.
A group of four key Maryland
officials and their agencies are
studying the parkway plan. They
have orders from the Maryland
Legislature to write an analysis
Of the plan to guide the next
Assembly in deciding whether to
accept the offer. refuse it or give
it further study.
Meanwhile, the Office of Ma
tional Capital Parks, which ad-
ministers the canal property as a
field operation of the National
Park Service. is seeking to meet
the objections being raised by
Marylanders.
Washington Planned Canal.
Going back to the beginning,
here is the way the proposal
originated and what it involves;
the objections and the Federal
Governments answers to them.
Historically, the C&O canal has
its basis in the dreams of George
Washington and other colonial
Virginia eXpansionists. These men
saw clearly what through trans
portation route for the vast po-
tential riches of the Ohio Valley
would mean to Tidewater Virginia.
Washington and colleagues who
formed the Potomack Company
with this in mind built several
sections of canal on the Virginia
side Of the river to take shallow
draft boats around falls and
rapids.
Their project was a failure, but
not because 1t was wrong in
principle.
The c. & o. Canal Co., which
inherited the dream, started work
on the present canal on Inde-
pendence Day, 1928. President
John Quincy Adams turned the
first spadeful of earth.
The project was greeted en-
Enthusiastically in Washington. AS
originally planned, it was to link
Washington and Pittsburgh via
q 341-mile waterway.
Doomed by Railroad.
It was doomed, however, to
extend only 1876 miles to Cumber-