Groundbreaking[edit]
The C&O's first chief engineer was Benjamin Wright, formerly chief engineer of the Erie Canal. A groundbreaking ceremony was held on July 4, 1828, attended by U.S. president John Quincy Adams. The ceremony was held near Georgetown, at the canal's eventual 5.64-mile mark near Lock 6, the upstream end of the Little Falls skirting canal, and Dam No. 1.[16][17]
At the groundbreaking, there was still argument over the eastern end of the canal. The directors thought that Little Falls (at the downstream end of the Patowmack Little Falls Skirting Canal) was sufficient since that literally fulfilled the charter's condition of reaching the tidewater, but people in Washington wanted it to end in Washington, connecting to the Tiber Creek and Anacostia river.[18] For that reason, the canal originally opened from Little Falls to Seneca, and the next year, was extended down to Georgetown.
The Little Falls skirting canal, which was part of the Patowmack Canal, was dredged to increase its depth from four to six feet, and became part of the C&O canal.
The first president of the Canal, Charles F. Mercer, insisted on perfection since this was a work of national importance. This would cost the company more money to build the canal. During his term, he forbade the use of slackwaters for navigation or the use of composite locks (see section below) or reduction of the cross section of the canal prism in difficult terrain. The reduced maintenance expenditures but increased construction costs.[19] In the end, two slackwaters (Big Slackwater above Dam #4, and Little Slackwater above Dam #5) and composite locks (from Lock 58-71) were built.
At first, the canal company thought to use steamboats in the slackwaters, since without mules, the canal boats had to use oars to move upstream, having no motive power. After many complaints of delays and dangers, the company provided a towpath so that the mules could pull the boats through the slackwaters.[20]
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