They spent too much money on cupcakes....................rinky dink marshmellow man country that it is.........twinkies and bubble gum and rubber bands are the only thing holding this place together..............

he total estimated price tag, more than $22 million, dampened the enthusiasm of many supporters, who were expecting more like $4 million to $5 million. At a convention in December 1826, they attempted to discredit the engineers' report, and offered lower estimates: Georgetown to Cumberland, $5,273,283; Georgetown to Pittsburgh, $13,768,152.^[10] Geddes and Roberts were hired to make another report, which they gave in 1828: $4,479,346.93 for Georgetown to Cumberland.^[11] With those numbers to encourage them, the stockholders formally organized the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company in June 1828.^[12] In the end, the final construction cost to Cumberland in 1850 was $11,071,075.21. Compared to the original cost given by the engineers in 1826 of about $8 million, removing things not in the estimate such as land purchases, engineering expenses, incidental damages, salaries, and fencing provision, the cost overrun was about 19%, which can be justified by the inflation rate of the period. The cost overrun of the other proposal (Geddes and Roberts) was about 51%^[13] thus showing that the original engineer's estimate was good.

A boat on the canal, circa 1900-1924

In 1824, the holdings of the "Patowmack Company" were ceded to the Chesapeake and Ohio Company. (Rejected names for the canal included the "Potomac Canal" and "Union Canal".^[14]) By 1825, the Canal Company was authorized by an act of the General Assembly of Maryland in the amount of subscriptions of $500,000 authorized by the act of incorporation paved the way for future investments and loans. According to historians,^[15] those financial resources were expended until the State had prostrated itself on its own credit.