Chapter 5
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River & Canal

(An abstract of information pertaining to the Potomac Waters at Brunswick, taken from Historical Information of Maryland Commission of Fisheries with Some Notes on Game, gathered by Al Powell, who was Superintendent of Hatcheries from 1922 to 1969, or 47 years.)

 The settlement at Brunswick occurred because of the felicitous intersection of a north-south land route and the Potomac River. Shortly after 1700 the Swiss prospector Louis Michel traveled the Potomac River from the falls to the mouth of the Shenandoah, and so passed the very shore of our town. He also built fish traps among the Conoy Islands.

 As early settlers were pushing their way into Virginia after landing in Philadelphia and settling in the southern Pennsylvania area, many stopped in what is now Frederick County and some set their roots at the Potomac Crossing, or Buffalo Wallow (now Brunswick).

 As a new country was being born, the Compact of 1785 gave citizens of Virginia access to the fishery resources in the Potomac. On January 14, 1926, a Court of Appeals of Maryland decision in Case 91 ruled that the Compact of 1785 with Virginia did not apply above the tidewater on the Potomac River. The Maryland boundary is the south side of the Potomac.

 The waters of Maryland, in the early settlement, fairly teemed with fish and the fact that settlements were all made on the shores attested to the value placed by our forefathers upon this food product.

In 1874, a Maryland Commission of Fisheries was established by law. "Every device (is) used to catch all fish and to such an extent that in time our waters (have been) well nigh depleted .... This is

 (an industry) without adequate protection," states the Maryland Annual Report of 1876.

One device particularly referred to was the "eel pot" or "fish trap," or "fish pot." This was used by the Indians, and is still used by primitive peoples of some South Pacific islands. This structure was probably made of sticks placed so that once inside, the fish could hardly escape. Imitated and modified by the white man, the trap became accepted general use in inland waters of the area.

 The trap had long arms in the middle of the stream in an upward direction on either side toward the shore and gathered in every living creature within the current. Citizens of Maryland largely abandoned their use on the Potomac River.

 Yet Maryland did not consider the eel pot destructive, for we had only fall fish, suckers, yellow catfish, and minnows above the falls; few bass or game fish were trapped or taken. There were no migratory fish from the Chesapeake Bay.

 Pennsylvania Commission asked Maryland to suppress the device "in the best interests of both states," because of the wanton destruction of fish of nearly all kinds. Public clamor made the fish pot illegal, according to the Maryland Annual Report of 2927.

 However, evidence of the eel pots remains in Frederick County, especially in the Potomac. On the Virginia side south of Heaters Island there remain three such traps and may well be the ones Louis Michel referred to, as related in The Potomac, by Frederick Gutheim.

By 1785 James Rumsey was clearing the Potomac of boulders and other obstructions that would impair the navigation of square-end boats and rafts floating the river from Williamsport and Cumberland to Georgetown. Thirty to forty barges and boats would leave Cumberland weekly or as long as water was high enough to float these rafts and gentle enough for such traffic. This was going on some years before the beginning of the C&O Canal.

 During the 1800's rivermen floated agricultural products on makeshift craft built for down river trips. Hastily and cheaply built, these crude craft were sometimes broken up for disposal. By 1820 mill dams and the fish traps were mentioned as causing difficulties in keeping river channels open for boat traffic.

By 1830 civilization brought industry, dams and canals, impeding the movement of fish. By 1866 ruthless destruction added to the above to upset nature's balance. The only types of fish in inland waters were "suckers, fallfish, cats and minnows," according to Gutheim in The Potomac. Every effort was made to help the passage of migratory fish upstream.

 Because there was no fish migration to the waters above Great Falls, fish ladders were considered as a means to help fish migrate above Great Falls. Here the Fall Line is 80 or more feet high.

 In 1876, an attempt was made to erect a fish ladder, but authorities saw that a ladder would be washed away like straw. Thoughts again turned to fish ladders between 1952 and 1955 over Little Falls dam. Maryland reminded the Corps of Engineers that Maryland law required a ladder; Federal law was supreme, and the ladder would not be built.

 However, a ladder was built at Little Falls, because Gov. McKeldin reminded the Secretary of the Army that Federal Control pertained to three areas only: flood control, navigation, and power development. The shad did not migrate as far as Little Falls, so the ladder was ineffective and ended thoughts of using ladders at Great Falls.

 In 1876 constructing a channel around Great Falls was studied. By 1879 nothing was done to this end, and the idea of channel and fish ladder came to naught.

The Commission on Fisheries, organized in 1874, was to stock the waters with food fish. Carp propagation had been successful in Europe, so the commissioners decided to introduce carp into Maryland waters. The carp was probably of Asiatic origin, having been cultured in China thousands of years before being brought to Europe. Before 1874 they were scarcely known in America.

 Fisheries of Maryland had become much depleted in latter years and a vast food supply was greatly diminished. In 1875 they secured carp from the Danube, selecting the best varieties. Perhaps the fact that central Maryland was heavy with Germans, Austrians, and Polish influenced the source of the imported fish. On the first transatlantic crossing, only 23 of the 375 fish survived. Other trips fared better.

 In 1878 the first distribution into public waters occurred: 20 fish from three to five inches. From 1878 to 1884 quite a number were reared and placed throughout the state. By 1881 the carp's fame as an excellent food fish gained wide publicity. With adequate feeding, the fish could be expected to attain 12 to 15 inches in a year's growth.

 The carp became a nuisance fish in many waters, but became a popular angling sports fish to many and were sought for their cunning in evading the hook; they are a great game fish and unwilling to give up easily.

The feasibility of using the C&O Canal to get shad around the bottleneck at Great Falls was seen as not suitable.

The 1916 Annual Report states that a statewide license system for all kinds of nets was required. A license was required also to support hatchery and pond work in hook and line fish propagation. A 1927 state license law was enacted and enforced.

Maryland's first fish farm pond stocking was made in 1917 in a pond near Brunswick.

 For a long time the Potomac waters at Brunswick have hosted many fishermen for a large area.

 S - Albert Powell W -MMM

 67

 Two decades ago the Potomac River was notoriously polluted. Floating clumps and nauseating odors drove its former lovers away from its banks; its sandy swimming areas became murky sewers. Bacterial counts mounted, and river people were told their fun days on the Potomac were over.

 From its inauspicious beginning at the Fairfax Stone in West Virginia the Potomac River soaks up the acid from abandoned mines and picks up color from the coal deposits it penetrates. The South Branch flows through farmland from Virginia. When the two meet, the clear south branch helps the other to clean up its act by diluting the acid, and the Potomac becomes a cleaner river. Silt from herbicides, fertilizers, and construction continue to do their share of damage as the water proceeds east and south.

 The city took a step in faith when it prepared a campground, which it dedicated in 1969. Since then improvements have been made annually; it has electricity, water, a boat ramp, and shower building.

 A decade and multi-million dollars of cleanup later, life returned to the water. Kayaks, canoes, rafts, and tubes again passed Brunswick's front door. Prospering businesses provide equipment for the hundreds who don their helmets and oars and bounce down river a couple hours to be picked up and returned by truck or car to the place of beginning.

 What happened? Plankton returned, thanks to reductions in phosphorus and chlorophyll. The oxygen level increased, giving aquatic life another lease. Organic river matter was reduced nearly by half.

 Is it clean? Safe? Not 100%, but it's much cleaner than it has been in a long time. It's Brunswick's answer to Ocean City.

 In recent years Brunswick's development and Mayor's office have brought the people to the river. Several times a year people are attracted like a nail to a magnet. First the area under the bridge was cleared and mowed. A show was performed in the sylvan setting of 1989 to much acclaim. Town picnics are held there. Boat races . . . of a sort. Bike rides and hikes along the canal. Foot races. Brunswick has rediscovered its river front.

 W -MMM

The initial effort to erect a bridge over the Potomac at Brunswick failed. Although the Maryland Assembly approved on February 15,1848, the incorporation of a company called "The Berlin & Potomac Bridge Co." and authorized its incorporation, this bridge was not constructed.

 The second venture was more successful. It resulted in a covered wood structure. The Virginia Legislature incorporated the "Loudoun Bridge Company" at its 1853-54 Session and appropriated $30,000 of Virginia state funds. On March 10th, 1854, the Maryland Assembly gave "assent" to the legislative action of Virginia. It protected the ferry owner from any damages suffered by its erection.

 Just when actual construction began is not known, though according to some old county records it was in operation by July 25, 1857. About 1600 feet in length, it was constructed of the best grade white pine on stringers, which rested on eight stone piers and abutments at each end. It had sufficient width for passing teams. On the Maryland end an inclined approach terminated at the edge of the tow-path; traffic crossed the lock bridge to Berlin's First Street (Virginia Avenue). The piers were somewhat higher than those of the Point of Rocks bridge. That one was washed away by high water. As precaution against this, large eye-bolts were imbedded in the pier masonry.

 During the Civil War an order of May 1, 1861, stated in part: "should it become necessary . . . destroy the bridges across the Potomac."

 Suddenly, on Sunday morning, June 9th, 1861, a Confederate cavalryman rode through the covered bridge to near Berlin. He dashed oil on the dry timber and set it afire in several places. In a few moments the entire structure was a roaring blaze; by nightfall, all that remained were eight blackened piers standing in the river.

 Nine years afterward the Maryland Assembly incorporated "The Berlin Bridge Company" in 1870. Nothing, however, came of the effort.

 Twenty years later Berlin was becoming the "boom town" of Brunswick. A group of Frederick residents formed the "Berlin and Lovettsville Bridge Company" and erected the 1893 steel structure. Permissions to extend the Maryland approach over a part of First Street (Virginia Avenue) was granted to the new municipality.

 The Youngstown (Ohio) Bridge Company began work on the ten-span "Crescent" type structure late in 1892. Over 1700 feet long, it rested on the first piers. On October 15, 1934, Brunswick's bridge became a part of the Maryland State Roads system and was toll free.

 Came the flood of 1936— the highest of record. Reports from up-stream— Bridges Out! From down river— Point of Rocks, Gone! But with the dawn our bridge was still standing— a little weak, but still intact.

 Eventually, the state replaced the over sixty year old bridge with the present concrete bridge, dedicated in 1955.

 S - Abstracted from an article written by Frank Spitzer, appearing in The Blade-Times, a former weekly Brunswick newspaper.

 W-MMM

 People used to ask, "Why are there trolley car tracks along Potomac Street?" (Yes, at one time, they reached from Littens to City Park.) The answer may lie within an article on page three of the Brunswick Times, September 3, 1914.

 Loudoun (Virginia) and Frederick Counties were being challenged to purchase the bridges at both Brunswick and Point of Rocks and drop toll charges for crossing them, because there was the possibility of an electric railway connecting Frederick and Brunswick.

 The bridges in question were erected at a total cost of under $100,000 for the two. The local one was built from a stock issue of $22,000 and a bond issue of $30,000, paying five and one-half percent, less taxes. If people holding stock would agree to sell, the bridge could have been purchased on a basis of par or less. County residents owned most of the stock, which was well scattered through the county.

 The heavy financial drain on Virginia residents hauling immense amounts of lime was pointed out, as well as the numbers of Virginia residents who shopped in Frederick County. Free toll would increase the crossings, benefiting both Frederick City and Brunswick, where most of the shopping would be done.

 Maryland already had an excellent system of State roads, the writer stated, with one reaching Knoxville; extending the short distance to Brunswick would also encourage tourists, hence mutually benefit both Frederick and Loudoun Counties.

 Business men favored "freeing" the bridge, but that did not happen until 1935.

Jefferson and Frederick were at one time connected by a trolley line and eventually rails were laid the length of Potomac Street in anticipation of the connecting link from Jefferson to Brunswick via an old road not far from Compher's Restaurant at the Cross Road (180 and 17) down through what is now the Eagles Club property and Birch Woods, to near the bottom of Central Avenue.

 On May 9, 1912, the Brunswick and Frederick Railroad Company requested a franchise to operate an electric railroad on certain streets of Brunswick. This was approved May 27.

 Eventually, the line was laid.

 "Believe It or Not" by Ripley once featured "the town with the trolley tracks, but never a trolley."

On November 1, 1938, the Brunswick Council voted to remove the rails from Potomac Street. The B&O RR and Grove Lime Company were to be requested to make bids for the rail.

 On July 5,1939, the council voted to sell 90 tons of steel rails and the tub stand on Wenner's Hill (the tub itself was of wood) to Levi Lucas for $960; payment was to be made before removal of either.

 The original plan for the streetcar tracks in town was owned by Dutch Burns who donated it to the Brunswick Museum.

 S - THE BRUNSWICK TIMES, Sept. 3,1914 W - M M M

George Washington had a wonderful dream of cleaning and channeling out the Potomac River for more transportation from the West than the rafts and flat boats were providing. That dream was never realized, but a third of century after his death, the canal provided a near-answer to that dream.

 Brunswick is fortunate to have benefited from this dream. It has two miles of that "Magnificent Ditch" running parallel with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Both were Berlin's and Brunswick's livelihood well into the twentieth century. Cornerstones for both the B&O and C&O were laid July 4, 1828, and both arrived in Berlin in 1834. Berlin became a "canal town" by 1888. The canal was severely damaged in the same storm of 1889 that produced the Johnstown Flood, then was rebuilt. Brunswick (name acquired at the April 8, 1890 old mill, which was altered and enlarged several incorporation) lost the canal connotation after the flood of 1924 did irreparable damage to the waterway. At the same time the canal company was beset with financial problems augmented by the insuperable competition of the B&O. The canal deteriorated for lack of attention until the United States Government bought it for $2,000,000 in 1938. Even then it received little attention until it was dedicated as the Justice Douglas C&O Canal National Park on May 17, 1977.

Of the 184.5 mile waterway from Georgetown, D.C., to Cumberland, Md., Brunswick can claim mile marker 55. Lock 30 was built 55 miles from the tide lock in Georgetown and was one of 74 lift locks along the canal. Lock 30 was fifteen feet wide, 100 feet long and 16 feet deep. A nineteenth century boat was 90-92 feet long and 14 feet wide. The locks allowed only a six- to twelve-inch clearance on both sides of a boat. As with each of the other 73 locks, Lock 30 had an eight-foot lift. Someone likened them to giant steps averaging about 21 miles apart. Each lifted a fifteen-ton boat eight feet in minutes. The drop was four times faster, ten minutes for the whole process. Because cool, wet stones almost surrounded the boat, the descent caused the temperature to drop noticeably, as well as noisily and bumpily.

 The material of Lock 30's construction was primarily cut red sandstone from nearby Seneca, Md., quarries; facing stones of hammer-dressed granite from Patapsco, Md.; and hammer-dressed (ribbed) gray quartzite from nearby Virginia, four miles south of Point of Rocks.

 Records of the contractors, dates, and costs for each part of the structure have been carefully kept by William E. Davies of Falls Church, Va.: Obediah Gordon and Andrew Small worked on the lock, Gordon in 1832, Small in 1832-33, with a total cost of $11,694.51.

 The embankment (1832-33) cost $1,351.50. The waste weir (1833) cost $350; the flume, (1834), $175. Pivot bridge over lock (1835), $401, and Lockhouse 22 (1836) $365. Total cost was $14,337. This was equivalent to about $675,000 during the mid-1980's, $550,000 of which applied to the lock.

 Fifty years later, a timber extension doubled the length in order to cut costs of hauling: two canal boats in tandem could navigate portions of the canal. This cost of $5,500 was equal to about $175,000 in the mid-1980's.

 The original flume at Berlin powered the town's times and lost to an arson-set fire in 1972. The lockhouse was 50 feet north of the lock.

The pivot bridge over the lock was rebuilt in 1869 and 1932, then removed in the 1970's when the present road was rerouted at the lock.

 The deck of the covered, wooden Howe truss, nine-span, 1,568-foot bridge of 1855-6 was near towpath level, and the canal was crossed on the pivot bridge. The nine-span, iron Warren bridge of 1893 carried the road over the canal. From 1830 to 1924 the canal hauled coal, grain, and lumber on a 93-foot boat with a capacity of 125 tons.

There's romance in imagining life for a family on a canal boat. Young children had to be tied or chained to the deck, with leeway for reasonable movement, but short enough to prevent falling overboard.

 Two or three mules made up the team that pulled the boat. While one mule pulled, one rested in the stable on the boat from the six-hour shift. The downstream current was two miles an hour, so the mules pulled no harder on a loaded boat downstream than to pull an empty back to Cumberland. The return trips were mostly empty.

 Some of the mule drivers were boys and girls, many as young as ten, some as young as six, according to personal comments of elderly men who drove mules as a child. Children received little schooling, since the family was on the move from March to December.

 A lock tender earned from $100 per year to $75 a month, with house and garden. The boat captain earned 40 cents per ton from Washington. A laborer received $10 - $20 per month, with poor food, houses and medical care.

One man can be thanked for his tenacity in trying to preserve the canal. After 1924, the canal was abandoned until 1954, when a move was underway to make a scenic parkway of the canal for motoring along the Potomac. Conservation groups began to focus the nation's attention on the conflicting plans, paving or saving the canal.

 Associate Justice of the Supreme Court William O. Douglas termed the canal "one of the most fascinating and picturesque in the nation .... A long stretch of quiet and peace at the nation's back door." He invited editorial writers to take time off to walk the canal with him. Some took the challenge.

 Through neglect, the C&O had remained the least altered of old American canals. It was not even widely used as recreation. Requests to accompany Justice Douglas poured in. At that time the fact that people were walking was news.

 They started on March 20, 1954, and trucks sagged them. People from Brunswick went down to welcome them through. At 23 miles per day, three to four miles per hour, through mud, heavy brush, and washouts, hundreds walked along with them. Fifty thousand people met the walkers at Washington, D.C., greeting nine who walked the entire distance, including Justice Douglas. They convinced the Washington Post that the canal should be kept. After that there were many reunion hikes of shorter length and another full-length walk.

 In 1971, our canal became a National Historic Park. Through an act of Congress it was formally dedicated to Douglas.

 S - Carolyn Hughes Crowley, "C&O Canal trip offers an animated history lesson," The Sun, Travel Section, July 8, 1984, p.2.

 - William E. Davies, "Lock 30," Unpublished sheets, Falls Church, Va., n.d.

 W-MMM

During the decade of the thirties and the Great Depression the Tow Path at Brunswick was referred to as a "hobo jungle" with "professional" hoboes. When freight trains stopped here, more men arrived while some ended their stay and took off for what they hoped would be greener pastures.

 Apparently the B&O Railroad and all the rest of the rail lines did not pull all the stops to keep the men off their trains. They realized what these men were up against, and conditions were the same throughout the country.

 When a housewife responded to a hungry hobo's request by giving him a sandwich or a platter of food, that house was marked. The word spread and other visitors appeared. Grateful people willingly shared with those less fortunate. Some families seated them at their own tables. Often the travelers asked for work to do in payment for the handout; outside work was frequently available.

 Dutch Burns was old enough by then to wander down to the "jungle" and make his own observations. These men shared, he reports. If a piece of meat on bread was offered, often the men would eat the bread and take the meat back to their camp, where the collection of meat and other available ingredients became mulligan stew for the entire group.

 Young girls were admonished by their mothers not to go to the Tow Path.

 W -MMM

When Picket Barger's grandfather, Pat Barger, pulled Ed Flynn's little storeroom (across the tracks from Gross's store) on LOGS to Petersville Road just below the Baptist Church? You could buy cider, peanuts, cheese, tobacco, candy . . . there. For 2 cents you got a three-pound bag full of peanuts. When you bought a cup of cider, he'd give you crackers free.

 When the little kids sat on the wall at the Maryland Avenue basement entrance to the bowling alleys in the Kaplon building, every Saturday night, to watch the big kids dance? Didn't Miss Lizzie Kaplon give dancing instructions?

 When Mr. Wall formed a band that gave Saturday night concerts in the band stand where Fast Eddie's is now located? Grover Stewart, Mr. Hill, John Funk, and some younger men were in this early 1930's orchestra.
 

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