Chesapeake & Ohio Canal, Locks 63 1/3, 64 2/3, & 66, State Route 51, Town Creek, Allegany County, MD

Significance: Near Paw Paw, West Virginia, the Canal Company chose not to follow the winding Potomac, cutting across a neck of land instead, thereby saving five miles of canal. This led to the excavation of a deep cut and the construction of the 3,000' long Paw Paw Tunnel. The cut, known as "Tunnel Hollow," contains three lift locks. Four were planned originally and numbered 63 through 66, but because of insufficient financing, the company decided to construct only three of the locks and increase each lift to ten feet. Some of the higher-numbers upstream locks had already been completed, so rather than renumbering all locks, the Canal Company numbers the three locks in Tunnel Hollow 63 1/3, 64 2/3, and 66. Because the quality of stone in the area was very poor, the walls of the lock chambers were lined with timber. The "composite" locks of Tunnel Hollow, completed in 1850, were among the last structures to be completed prior to the formal opening of the canal in October of that year.
Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: FN-9
Survey number: HAER MD-30
Building/structure dates: 1850 Initial Construction