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Protecting the Canal since 1954

Chesapeake & Ohio Canal Association is an independent, all-volunteer citizens organization established in 1954 to help conserve the natural and historical environment of the C&O Canal and the Potomac River Basin. The association works with the National Park Service in its efforts to preserve and promote the 184-mile towpath.
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Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Lock 25, Edwards Ferry, Montgomery County Maryland.
The site is named for Edwards Ferry which operated across the Potomac River just below the lock. The ferry opened in 1791, and closed for the final time in 1913 after having a rich history of strategic crossing during the Civil War.
The lock here was built in 1830, and it was extended in 1881-82 with rock and wooden cribbing on the lower end, to allow for the passage of two boats through the lock at once. This was the first lock to be given this treatment and little exists of that extension today.
The one and a half story brick lockhouse still stands on the Towpath side, and can be rented through the Canal Trust's Canal Quarters program.
Ruins beyond the lockhouse or that of the canal store, which were stabilized by National Park Service. The store closed according to the Hahn guide to the canal in 1906. The Jarboe family operated the store, and a wooden frame house on the berm side of the canal reportedly served as a store, operated by lock tenders John Walters and Charlie Pool for most of the remainder of the time the canal was in service.
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E. V. White owned the ferry after the Civil War.

Historic NPS image of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal lock 28, also known as Point of Rocks Lock or Mountain Lock, just west of point of rocks Maryland. Post abandonment.
1/7 of the stone for this lock was carried 46 mi on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad from granite quarries of the Patapsco Point to the town of Point of Rocks, and then by wagon an additional mile. The remaining stone was flint, brought from a quarry in Virginia some 4 miles away.
The lock was completed in 1833 and was also known as Dent's Lock. It had a lift of six feet, a little less than most locks on the canal.
The one and a half story brick lock house is located on the towpath side, and is available for overnight rental for long distance trekkers.
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