What is the Paw Paw Tunnel? It’s the 19th Century equivalent of Boston’s Big Dig. According to the NPS brochure, the original contract called for completion of the tunnel in two years. Instead it took fourteen. Original costs for construction were estimated at $33,500. Instead it cost over $600,000.

From the NPS.gov files of facts:

Did You Know?
The Paw Paw Tunnel is 3,118 feet long and is lined with over six million bricks. The 3/4 mile long tunnel saved the canal builders almost six miles of construction along the Paw Paw bends of the Potomac River. It took twelve years to build and was only wide enough for single lane traffic.

The C&O Canal is a 184.5 mile journey from Cumberland to Georgetown. So that means that if it had not been for this tunnel it would’ve been a 189.8 mile journey (184.5 + 6 – 0.75 = 189.75; rounding up), which surely would’ve killed any mule towing a canal barge. Shaving off those 6 miles really saved some ass. I’m sure by the time they were finished traffic was still just as bad–if not worse–leading to some serious canal rage.

Seriously, though, probably the most information on the tunnel and its history can be found here.

We visited the Paw Paw Tunnel on August 5, 2004, at the end of our National Road family vacation (would your family ever have thought of such a thing?). I thought to buy a flashlight at a hardware store some time along our trip in anticipation of our journey down the long tunnel; and boy, did it come in handy. That is one long tunnel, with that characteristic drip drip sound that you hear in movies when the hero or heroine is in a cave. It was also refreshingly cool, which was nice in August.

The tunnel is off the beaten path and accessed via West Virginia. We went there from Hancock, Maryland, but learned about it at the Cumberland, Maryland, C&O Canal visitor center. There’s no specific stamp that I know of.

Personally, I always thought going through the Paw Paw Tunnel again would be a neat little day trip; either from Frederick or from Berkeley Springs, West Virginia. On the way out, I could dine with whoever I was with at Panorama at the Peak, hopefully around sunset. Better yet, make reservations to stay at Grandma’s Country Kitchen in Paw Paw, itself.

What’s a Paw Paw? Apparently it’s an exotic fruit that kind of looks and tastes like a banana and grows on nearby slopes. No kidding. I’m not making that up. I was expecting it to be an Indian tribe.