Who built the C/O canal?

Question

What is his/her name?

Answer 1

No one person could build a canal!!!

The Chesapeake and Ohio Company was the original builders of the C&O Canal. The Chief Engineer was Benjamin Wright, formerly the Chief Engineer of the Erie Canal.
construction began with a groundbreaking ceremony on July 4, 1828 by President John Quincy Adams.

Answer 2

The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, abbreviated as the C&O Canal, and occasionally referred to as the "Grand Old Ditch," operated from 1836 until 1924 parallel to the Potomac River in Maryland from Cumberland, Maryland to Washington, DC. The total length of the canal is about 184.5 miles (300 km). The elevation change of 605 ft (185 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 (10 of which remain). The canal also extends through the 3120 ft (950 m) Paw Paw Tunnel. The principal cargo was coal from the Allegheny Mountains. The canal way is now maintained as a park, with a linear trail following the old towpath, the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park.

George Washington had a large part in its creation. Washington founded the Potowmack Company in 1785 to make improvements to the Potomac River in order to improve its navigability. In 1836, the canal was used as a Star Route for the carriage of mails from Georgetown to Shepherdstown using canal packets. The contract was held by Albert Humrickshouse at $1,000 per annum for a daily service of 72 book miles. The Patowmack Company built a number of skirting canals around the major falls including the Patowmack Canal in Virginia. When completed, it allowed boats and rafts to float downstream towards Georgetown. Going upstream was a bit harder. Slim boats could be slowly poled upriver. The completion of the Erie Canal worried southern traders that their business might be threatened by the Northern canal; plans for a canal linking the Ohio and Cheasapeake were drawn up as early as 1820. In 1824, the holdings of the Potowmac Company were ceded to the Chesapeake and Ohio Company. Benjamin Wright, formely Chief Engineer of the Erie Canal, was named Chief Engineer of this new effort, and construction began with a groundbreaking ceremony on July 4, 1828 by President John Quincy Adams.

In 1843, the Potomac Aqueduct Bridge was constructed near the present-day Key Bridge to connect the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal to the Alexandria Canal which led to Alexandria, Virginia.

In the 1870s, a canal inclined plane was built two miles upriver from Georgetown, so that boats whose destination was downriver from Washington could bypass the congestion in Georgetown. The inclined plane was dismantled after a major flood in 1889 when ownership of the Canal transferred to the B&O Railroad, which operated the canal to prevent its right of way (particularly at Point of Rocks) from falling into another railroad's hands. Operations ceased in 1924 after another flood.

Answer 3

http://www.fred.net/kathy/timeline.html

http://www.nps.gov/choh/historyculture/index.htm