The bald eagle, a majestic and powerful bird of prey, was a common sight along the America’s eastern seaboard as early explorers arrived.

These birds primarily eat fish, waterfowl, and small mammals, so they generally live near major bodies of water throughout the continent— along the Atlantic from Labrador to the tip of south Florida, and along the Pacific from Baja California to Alaska.

Because they were frequently seen in the areas where colonists were settling, the impressive bird came to mind when the Founding Fathers were looking for symbolic ways to represent the country. 

In 1782, the bald eagle was featured on the American Seal. Two years later, the bird was also selected to be our national bird.

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Continental Congress Wanted a “Coat of Arms”

During the early 1780s, members of the Continental Congress wanted a “coat of arms” of sorts–a symbolic depiction of what the country was to stand for. They envisioned that the national seal would be used for display and to affix on treaties and other official documents.

There were many opinions about the choice of national symbol from members of the Continental Congress. Three design committees worked on possibilities. Finally, the responsibility was handed over to Philadelphian Charles Thomson (1729-1824) an Irish-born Patriot who served as secretary of the Continental Congress and was on the Great Seal Committee.

Thomson took into account the work done by two previous design committees. He also consulted scholar and Philadelphia attorney William Barton (1754-1817), who had a great deal of knowledge about the types of coats of arms used by European countries. It is thought that Barton was the individual who suggested using a bald eagle with its wings outspread as part of the design.

Benjamin Franklin objected. He felt the eagle was a bird of bad moral character, and that the wild turkey was more fitting. “It [the turkey] is a bird of courage,” according to Franklin.

Nonetheless, the bald eagle won out.

Creation of the Great Seal

After working with the designs suggested by the previous committees as well as comments from William Barton, Charles Thomson put together the final design for the Great Seal in June 1782.

The American eagle is the focal point. It depicted a bird with its wings outspread and rising. In the eagle’s right talon, Thomson placed the olive branch suggested by the second committee. The eagle was to face to the right, showing the country’s preference for peace.

In the bird’s left talon, the eagle holds a symbol of war. In this case, a bundle of thirteen arrows. 

On a scroll in the eagle’s beak, Thomson put the motto E Pluribus Unum suggested by the first committee.

In the Words of the Founders

Thomson’s own description is meaningful as it explains so much of what our Founding Fathers had in mind for the country:

“The colours of the pales are those used in the flag of the United States of America; White signifies purity and innocence, Red, hardiness & valor, and Blue, the colour of the Chief signifies vigilance, perseverance & justice. The Olive branch and arrows denote the power of peace & war which is exclusively vested in Congress. The Constellation denotes a new State taking its place and rank among other sovereign powers. The Escutcheon is born on the breast of an American Eagle without any other supporters to denote that the United States of America ought to rely on their own Virtue.”

Though we have a sketch of what the Founders had in mind, it was intended as only a guideline.

For almost 250 years now, the Great Seal of the United States has ratified international agreements of peace, cooperation, and trade. Representing the people of America, it seals our promise to other nations.

The National Bird

Two years after a seal was approved, the eagle was chosen as the national bird for its long life, great strength, and majestic looks.

If we moved forward in time to the 1960s, President John F. Kennedy stated, “The Founding Fathers made an appropriate choice when they selected the bald eagle as the emblem of the nation. The fierce beauty and proud independence of this great bird aptly symbolizes the strength and freedom of America.”

About the Bird

The bald eagle is the only eagle native to North America. The birds primarily live near water in order that their food supply is nearby. The eyesight of these birds is so good that they can spot a single fish from a mile away.

Eagles can weigh up to 15 pounds and have wing spans of about 7 feet. They mate for life and may return to the same nest year after year. Nests are generally located at the tops of trees. Because nests are added on to each year, some nests can be as large as ten feet across.

In the wild, bald eagles are thought to live to be about 30 years old. However, many do not survive to adulthood. Firstborns may do away with siblings to get rid of competition for food, and more than half of the eaglets starve to death their first winter, because they have not yet perfected their hunting skills.

As the human population expanded throughout North America, the bald eagle population decreased. Pesticides and destruction of their nesting areas were mainly to blame.

Fortunately, the bird count in Alaska has always been higher, so while that state’s bird population suffered for a time, it has rebounded more quickly. Today eagles are plentiful. Visitors can admire them as easily as if they were robins.

Protecting the Bird

The first time Congress gave legal protection to the bald eagle was in 1940 with the Bald Eagle Protection Act. The law prohibits anyone without a permit for “taking” bald eagles. “Taking” is described as removing or disturbing the birds. There are criminal penalties for possessing, bartering, or transporting a bald eagle or any part of the bird’s nest or egg.

This has put American law at odds with the cultural practices of Native American tribes. Many tribes consider eagles to be “master of the sky” and use the bald eagle or its feathers symbolically in celebrations. Tribes never killed wantonly. Most tribes had a specifically-trained tribal member who was skilled at killing the eagle or eagles needed for ceremonies.

But for reasons beyond Native Americans, the numbers of bald eagles kept dropping. In 1962, the government passed a federal statute to protect both the bald and the golden eagle.  It, too, specifies that bird parts, nests, and eggs—and the birds–are not to be molested or disturbed. However, permits can be obtained to possess the eagles parts and feathers for religious purposes and lawful activities.

Problems with Progress

In addition to considering the cultural needs of Native Americans, the government has needed to consider situations when progress has interfered with eagles and their habitats. In 2009, the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act was amended to provide for permits to relocate eagles near airports and certain utilities. 

The growth of the wind turbine movement also presented problems. Eagles sometimes fly into the turbine and are injured or killed. Companies have implemented ways to mitigate these incidents, but there is not yet a way to bring those numbers to zero. As of 2011, the US Fish and Wildlife Service added a provision for the wind energy industry to apply for “incidental take” permits to avoid penalties.

When Alaska became a state in 1959, that brought their wildlife under federal protection, and it has been needed. In the early part of the twentieth century, salmon fishermen felt eagles were interfering with the salmon catch. Bounties were offered for killing them.

Alaska

In 1973, the passage of the Endangered Species Act further solidified protection. By 1995, two decades after banning the use of DDT and other laws specifically protecting both the birds and their nesting trees, the status of the eagle was upgraded to “threatened” in the lower 48.

Off Endangered Species List

In 2007 the Interior Department took the American bald eagle off the endangered species list but the birds are still protected under both the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act.

The species has recovered dramatically and as of early 2021 (the most recent count), at least 316,000 bald eagles are believed to occur in the lower 48 states.

The Woodcraft Indians organization was an American forerunner of the Boy Scouts. Ernest Thompson Seton (1860-1946) was its founder.  In forming the Woodcraft Indians in 1902, Seton places himself among the two or three people who introduced environmentalism to America in the early twentieth century.

Ernest Thompson Seton was a British-born gifted illustrator and writer, who had already produced several scientific books about wildlife. But his contribution to society came through undertaking to teach young people about the value of the natural world we lived in.

The Development of the Woodcraft Indians

The concept for forming the Woodcraft Indians began in Cos Cob, Connecticut, a wealthy town adjacent to Greenwich. Seton’s opportunity to change lives presented itself when he was trying to solve a problem of his own.

Seton and his wife purchased a home called “Windygoul.”  The house was surrounded by beautiful land, part of which was wooded. The area had long been used by locals as a place where young fellows came to hunt small game.  Seton wanted to prevent hunting on his property so he fenced it.  This angered the local teens who still wanted access to the property.  On several separate occasions they vandalized the fence and the gates into the property.

With the vandalism repeated several times after repairs were done, Seton understood that the problem was not going to go away.  He could have called the police but wasn’t certain that was the right approach.  The school year’s Easter break (1902) was approaching, and Seton decided the solution lay in instructing the boys.  He invited those he thought were involved to come and spend the weekend camping on his property.

Wary but curious, the boys came.  They found Seton well prepared with plans for the weekend. Seton felt Native Americans had a lot to offer in teaching man how to relate to nature. He had many stories to share of Native Americans of the area, and he taught games and activities that would let the boys explore the fields and woods in ways that did not involve hunting.

He also encouraged them to establish their own leadership hierarchy. The group elected a Chief, a Second Chief, a Keeper of the Tally, and a Keeper of the Wampum, as well as other roles for all of the boys. They also fashioned their own clothing to wear as tribe members, and each boy selected their own tribal name.

The Woodcraft Indians Spread Nationally

Seton’s effort worked so well that Seton developed plans for more groups of what he came to refer to as the Woodcraft Indians. The Ladies Home Journal editors were familiar with Seton’s writing, and he was asked to prepare a series of articles about “Seton’s Boys,” which appeared in the magazine later in 1902.  The national publicity for Seton’s project led to the establishment of other groups of Woodcraft Indians elsewhere in the country.

Seton was to write: “[The Woodcraft Indians] would help bring together young people from various so-called stations, break down the barriers that society has foolishly placed upon them, and establish in their minds when they are young a finer kind of humanity, a real understanding that the important thing is the association of a human spirit.”

Prolific Writer and Now Leader of a Movement

Though he took on the Woodcraft Indian movement with gusto, Ernest Seton continued writing and illustrating books.  His how-to for the Woodcraft movement was published as The Birch Bark Roll of the Woodcraft Indians, but he was also writing nature stories, such as Bannertail: The Story of a Gray Squirrel and Johnny Bear, Lobo and Other Stories as well as books like Sign Talk of the Indians.

Later on, he wrote additional guides for forming other groups: Woodcraft Manual for Girls, The Laws and Honors of the  Little Lodge of Woodcraft, and The Manual of the Brownies. (The original Brownies organization was established for girls and boys, ages 6-11, and was said to be based on a Seton’s book, Woodland Tales.)

Environmentalism in the Early Twentieth Century

Seton was not totally alone in his belief that we must preserve nature.  During this time, John Muir was very active, particularly in the West, protecting and preserving land. Muir had Teddy Roosevelt’s ear which was very helpful to Muir in getting things done. Muir was also co-founder of The Sierra Club (1892).

Another environmentalist, Gifford Pinchot, was appointed by President Teddy Roosevelt in 1905 to be the first chief of the U.S. Forest Service.  Pinchot believed that nature needed to be protected but that progress needed to continue; at a certain level, modified control over nature was inevitable.

Roosevelt himself was a huge believer in protecting nature, and he advocated that young people participate in sports and rigorous exercise; he himself had overcome a sickly childhood by exercise regularly.

Ernest Thompson Seton differed from Roosevelt in that he felt that the key to understanding the human spirit lay in the natural world, and for that reason, children to be encouraged to spend more time outdoors in rural and wooded areas.

The Woodcraft Indians and the Boy Scouts

The Boy Scouts is an organization recognized today as being founded by British military hero, Lord Robert Baden-Powell.

After the Boer War, Baden-Powell returned to England, and because of his heroism, he was frequently asked to address groups to tell about his experiences. He soon learned that one of the booklets, “Aid to Scouting,” that he had prepared for his soldiers was being used by groups in England to guide young boys. Based on this, the leader of the Boys’ Brigade, an interdenominational Christian organization, asked Baden-Powell to expand and develop a program that groups could use to teach young men good citizenship.

Baden-Powell had heard of Ernest Thompson Seton’s work in the United States and invited him over to discuss it. Seton hoped that England would establish chapters of the Woodcraft Indians and took a copy of the The Birch Bark Roll of the Woodcraft Indians to Lord Baden-Powell.

Ultimately, Baden-Powell decided to go a slightly different direction, but he wrote to Seton explaining why, and noted that Seton’s book was a tremendous help in formulate his thoughts.  Baden-Powell went on to create the organization of the Boy Scouts.

Initially, Seton opted to follow Baden-Powell’s lead, and Seton co-founded the U.S.-based Boys Scouts with Dan Beard in 1910. He merged his Woodcraft Indian chapters into the newly formed group. Seton served as Chief Scout Executive until 1915 when he left the group over philosophical differences. Perhaps since Baden-Powell came from a military background, the scouts began to teach the use of firearms. This was offensive to all Seton stood for, and so he withdrew from the Scouts and went on to form other new groups.

Seton Continues His Work

This time Seton returned to his concept for the Woodcraft Indians but made it coeducational and called it the Woodcraft League of America.  It was open to all children “between the ages of 4 and 94.” Possibly because of his numerous books, the Woodcraft League programs spread worldwide.

An offshoot of the League continues today in Los Angeles.  Known as the Woodcraft Rangers, the organization runs nature camp and summer activities for inner city children and also runs after-school programs.  The emphasis is on helping children mature into healthy productive adults. Their reach is reported on their website as being about 12,000 children annually.

Seton’s Later Life

IN 1930 Seton bought 2300 acres in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and founded the Seton College of Indian Wisdom. By this time he was married to his second wife, and they both taught summer courses in the arts, outdoor activities, and leadership.

Today Seton Village still exists; the learning institute is now called the Academy of the Love of Learning. There is also a Seton Memorial Library.

While some critics now look back at Seton’s books and see them as overly sentimental and containing illustrations that are more artistic than scientific.  But no one can dispute that his knowledge and work led him to spread the word about conservation and preservation to America’s youth.

Flag Day was proclaimed to be June 14 by President Woodrow Wilson in 1916. The date was chosen to commemorate that on June14, 1777, a flag with stars and stripes was selected as the symbol of the United States of America. The 1777 resolution stated that the flag should have “thirteen stripes alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.”

For a time, the founders foresaw adding stripes and stars as new states were added. In 1791 Vermont was added, followed by Kentucky in 1792. In 1794, it was proclaimed that the new flag would have 15 stripes and 15 stars. This is the design that is used for our most famous flag, “The Star-Spangled Banner.” (See below.) It was also the flag carried by the Corps of Discovery as Lewis and Clark ventured West. (See Bear Cubs at the White House and Sacagawea.)

As states were added, they realized that adding both stripes and stars was problematic. The added stripes would make future flags very unwieldy. In 1818, the decision was made to return to the original thirteen stripes (representing the original colonies) and represent new states by adding new stars.

The Flag with Fifty States

Our current flag—with fifty states—dates to 1959 when Dwight D. Eisenhower was president. Both Alaska and Hawaii became states at that time.

Public input provided the design of the current flag. Thousands of suggestions were mailed to the White House with ideas as to how to place the fifty stars. Some teachers assigned students to create a workable design. A 17-year-old student in Lancaster, Ohio, was one of three people who submitted the idea of alternate rows of five and six stars.

Student Robert G. Heft (1941-2009) got the edge on the other two entrants because he actually stitched a sample flag. He took his family’s 48-star flag and stitched in new blue fabric. He then cut out 100 white stars from iron-on fabric and placed the stars on both sides of the blue field. Heft created a full example of how the flag would look, and this is the design we know today.

Six flags have been planted on the moon.  Five are still waving. The flag that has fallen is the first, the one placed by Neil Armstrong in 1969.

And a Few Facts about the Star-Spangled Banner

The flag we know as the Star-Spangled Banner is the flag that flew over Fort McHenry, Maryland, during the War of 1812.  Mary Pickersgill made it at the request of Colonel George Armistead who asked for a flag “so large that the British will have no difficulty seeing it at a distance.” Pickersgill also made a second smaller flag that measured 17 by 25 feet.  It was to be used during inclement weather to protect the over-sized garrison flag from getting saturated.

Colonel George Armstead and his troops successfully defended Fort McHenry against the British in 25 hours of fierce fighting in what is known as the Battle of Baltimore. It rained during much of the fighting, so the storm flag (17 feet by 25 feet) is thought to have been flown during most of the battle. But toward dawn on September 14, 1814, Armistead had the Great Garrison Flag (the one that measured 30 by 42 feet), raised above the fort to show that they had outlasted the British attack.

The flag observed by Francis Scott Key at “dawn’s early light” is thought to have been the over-sized garrison flag.  As noted above, this flag had 15 stripes and 15 stars, since the flag of that day represented the new states with both stars and stripes. (See above.)

Armistead remained commander at Fort McHenry until his death in 1818, and when he died, the flag passed to his wife and then to his daughter, Georgiana Armistead Appleton.

Where was the Flag During the Civil War?

When the Civil War began, Georgiana Appleton is thought to have hidden the flag within her home. She still lived in Maryland (a slave state that did not secede from the Union), but her sentiments lay with the Confederacy. Georgiana’s daughter told a reporter that the flag was not in Maryland during the war; that it was sent to England at that time. Neither story can be verified.

In 1912, Georgiana Appleton’s son, Eben, presented the flag to the Smithsonian as a permanent gift. He stipulated that the flag should never be loaned elsewhere as the family wanted it to be available to be seen by all American citizens.

The Star-Spangled Banner has remained at the Smithsonian except for one occasion.  After the attack at Pearl Harbor, Americans feared another assault on the homeland. Plans were made to send some of the Smithsonian’s most precious objects out of Washington for safekeeping. Many items including the flag were crated and sent to a storage facility in Luray, Virginia.

In the 1990s, the curators at the Smithsonian determined that the flag required more conservation if it was to continue to be displayed. In 1994, the flag was removed for cleaning and mending. To read about the work that was done, click here. https://amhistory.si.edu/starspangledbanner/preservation-project.aspx (During certain parts of the conservation, visitors could see the work underway.)

The Flag Today

The flag is now on permanent at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.  The whereabouts of the second smaller flag created as a storm flag by Mary Pickersgill is not known.

To read the full story of the Star Spangled Banner, and when and how it was composed, read “Francis Scott Key: How the Star Spangled Banner Came to be Written.”

To read about Mary Pickersgill, click here.  In her work, she was aided by a young indentured servant named Grace Wisher.

“If a place doesn’t exist, it’s hard to tell the story,” says Adrian Scott Fine, director of Advocacy for the Los Angeles Conservancy, as we toured Terminal Island.

In the late 1800s, the island was an artists’ colony known as Brighton Beach, but starting at the turn of the 20th century, the island took on great importance as a port. This new status as a transportation hub has led to the fact that Terminal Island now has three separate and very different stories that can best be told by a short trip to the island via one of the four bridges that connects it to the mainland:

1. Long before filmmaking was even being done for commercial purposes, Los Angeles was already becoming an important town because it had a port with a growing number of land transportation options that were vital for the movement of people and goods.

In the early 1900s when the California Fish Company created a way to cook, preserve, and pack tuna, they gave birth to an entire industry — there was no canning of tuna before this. They not only created this food-packing system but they successfully promoted it as an alternative to chicken. This innovation took the port from “useful” to “Big Industry,” and in so doing greatly contributed to the development of Los Angeles as a vital American business center. By the 1920s, Chicken of the Sea, Starkist, and nine other canneries were located here. So vital was tuna to L.A. that the fish appears on the official seal of Los Angeles County.

2. An entire Japanese fishing village grew up on Terminal Island to support this very important American industry. The Japanese men knew fishing, and their wives soon joined them to live on the island and work in the canneries. Soon Terminal Island was a “company town” with a school, local businesses, and places of worship for its community of first and second-generation Japanese Americans.

All that changed after December 1941 and the bombing of Pearl Harbor. A decision was made to immediately round up the Japanese (many of whom were second-generation citizens) on Terminal Island. By February 1942, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 that provided for the removal of all Japanese-American and Japanese nationals in the western part of the country and to place them in guarded camps where they were held for two years. The Terminal Island residents were removed long before this Congressional action.

All those sent off to these camps had everything taken from them — their livelihoods, their homes, and their possessions. The government razed the homes on Terminal Island.

3. Starting in World War I, Terminal Island had become important as a ship-building center. In World War II, destroyers were being built there in great numbers. This use of Terminal Island was one of the prime reasons that Terminal Island residents were the first to be taken from their homes.

So many people were hired for the war effort at the port that jobs opened for African-Americans, providing new opportunities. Discrimination was still widespread but the NAACP stepped in to fight for work rights for these Americans — another important aspect of this story.

While no government facilities currently build ships on Terminal Island, boat-building does continue, most notably the 110-year-old yards of the Al Larson Boat Shop.

Past at Risk

Today Terminal Island’s story is at risk of being wiped out. The property is owned by the Port of Los Angeles, and a new land use proposal is nearing the final stages of approval. The plan has
no provision for adaptive reuse of the older buildings and foresees razing and starting new in most areas. (Even some of Al Larson’s boat-building property is at risk with the re-design.) It is part of the larger Port Master Plan Update.

Hearings have been taking place on whether or not the land use proposal will be accepted. If you have concerns, please check the L.A. Conservancy website for updates or email them directly: info@laconservancy.org

Based on the status of the report, Terminal Island has been placed on the Most Endangered Historic Places list (one of 11 spots currently being watched carefully) by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Both the National Trust and the L.A. Conservancy would like to have an impact on the proposal; they do not want to halt progress but would welcome adaptive reuse of some of the historic buildings.

An Effort to Be Remembered

In 2002, family members of former Terminal Island residents placed a Japanese Memorial at Fish Harbor, but this sculpted fishing scene — beautiful as it is as a reminder of the original lifestyle here — does not begin to tell the story Terminal Island has to tell about a company town, its people, and the vital importance of the ship building and the fishing and canning industries that thrived here.

National Trust president Stephanie Meeks issued a statement noting that “We look forward to working with our partners to ensure that Terminal Island continues to thrive as a center of commerce in Los Angeles, and that its role in American history is preserved for future generations.”

Today — in a perfect blend of old L.A. with more recent L.A. — Terminal Island is frequently used in filming. It has been a location in CSI, Dexter, and 24 along with films such as Spider-Man, Charlie’s Angels and Mr. and Mrs. Smith and many others.

A PATCHWORK OF PEOPLE

What did your great-grandparents do? If you think about it, they were probably important players in helping develop our country, no matter what their role. And have you ever thought about how very different their lives were than the lives we lead today?

I was reminded of this difference on my recent visit to Frederick, Maryland when I was provided with a small booklet containing the reminiscences of Lavenia Waskey; the book was a collection of her memories of growing up along the C&O Canal. The stories were undated, but Lavenia must have been born about 1905-08 as she was still relatively young and living at home during the 1918 flu epidemic.

From her reminiscences, I learned that until Lavenia was seven, she and her parents lived on a canal boat where her father was a mule driver on a boat that transported coal from the Alleghany Mountains to the eastern shore as far as Georgetown. As a child on a canal boat, Lavenia, her parents’ only child at that time, had to amuse herself for long periods. The only time she saw any other people at all or could get off the boat was in the evening, and only if the captain decided to tie up the boat for the night.

A desire to let Lavenia attend school might have been a motivating factor for her father’s job change. When she was seven, he became a locktender, and this provided some stability for the family. In addition to a small salary, the family received permission to live in a house located right by the lock (Catoctin Lock 29 in Lander, Maryland). Because canal traffic could come at any time of the day or night, it was important that someone live right by each lock to be available as needed.

When the boats came through, the lock gates had to be opened and closed; the work required a great deal of strength to maneuver the heavy gates holding back the water. During the 1918 flu, Lavenia’s mother had to perform the task while her father lay ill, and Lavenia writes of how very difficult it was for her mother to handle the work.

In addition to the physical tending of the lock, the canal company required paperwork on all boats that came through each lock. Each boat had a number, and the locktender recorded the boat, the time it passed through the lock, and whether it was empty or full. One of Lavenia’s tasks was running postcards with these notations up to the post office.

Pay was low so locktenders sometimes maintained gardens from which they sold produce, or their wives sold baked goods to those who came by.

When John Jones of Journey through Hallowed Ground and I met George Lewis, D.V.M. and president of the Catoctin Aqueduct Restoration Fund, we actually met him at the house at Lock 29 where Lavenia and her family once lived. Today it serves as a headquarters and visitors’ center for those who would like to walk along the canal route or visit the aqueduct.

The small house and Lavenia’s reminiscences are a reminder of how much our lives have changed. One hundred years after Lavenia’s childhood, children are required by law to attend school, and they usually attend one that is very close to their house. They spend most of their days inside playing on computers or watching television or having organized playdates, while Lavenia would have had no structure at all for play and would have spent most of her days outdoors, either playing or helping her parents with the work they did.

It is hard to think of what helicopter parents would make of having to supervise a toddler while traveling on a canal boat with no access to toddler gym or music classes. Despite living on a boat, Lavenia not only never attended Baby Swim classes, she never even learned to swim. Her father’s attempt to teach her by tying a rope around her and throwing her into the canal so traumatized Lavenia that she avoided going into the water for the rest of her life.

As for her parents, a tip of the hat goes to them both. They worked hard and put in very long hours, yet they made little money; there was no retirement package, no health care option, and no safety standards for any of the jobs they performed. Yet these are among the hearty people on whose backs our country was built. Without them, America wouldn’t be what it is today. Your great-grandparents and grandparents likely made similar contributions to this country,

Today we take for granted the U.S. Interstate Highway System, our railroads, our waterway transportation methods, and the network of airlines that can take us almost anyplace at any time.

We rarely stop to think about how the story of our country hinges heavily on the types of transportation created to take people west and to bring raw materials and products east. Devising these early transportation methods required great ingenuity of the men of that day, backbreaking labor, and a lot of good luck in coping with adversity.

As early as the 1780s George Washington predicted that waterways were going to be a primary means of transportation. In 1785 he founded the Potowmack Company for the purpose of making the Potomac River more navigable, but progress in water transport was slow. Materials and people could be sent downstream easily but traveling upstream could not be accomplished without mule or man trekking on land to tow the boat.

In the early 1800s there were two breakthroughs: In 1807 Robert Fulton introduced the first commercially successful steam-powered boat, which could travel upriver and down. Then in 1825 the Erie Canal was completed, connecting the Hudson River to Lake Erie. It led to the growth of cities along its path, and it brought down freight costs in the area.

The commercial success of the Erie set off a canal-building frenzy, as investors realized that these artificial waterways could link interior areas to existing rivers and lakes. The plan for the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal was to connect Washington, D.C. with Cumberland, Maryland, and eventually, Pittsburgh.

By 1850, the completed sections of the C&O Canal ran 184.5 miles. Culverts took the canal across small streams; aqueducts (bridgelike structures that can carry a water conduit across a valley or over a river) got the canal over bigger streams. A system of locks provided a way to increase the water level from sea level in Georgetown to 610 feet (190m) in Cumberland.

Building and maintaining canals was not easy. However, many of the obstacles of the canal system, ranging from engineering challenges to the fact that canals froze during winter, would probably have been overcome if competition had not been nipping at its heels.

The Coming of the Railroads
Railroads first appeared in the United States in the 1820s, and Baltimore was one of the cities where businessmen thought rail transportation could be key. The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company planned to build a line that could create a faster route for Midwestern goods to reach the east coast, and they hoped to take business away from the Erie Canal. Baltimore citizens were so excited that many bought a share of stock so they, too, could profit.

For either rail or canal travel going west through the Mid-Atlantic region, the Catoctin Creek, a major tributary of the Potomac that runs through parts of Maryland and Virginia, is in a key area. The B&O Railroad and the C&O Canal fought over a narrow strip of land where both wanted to cross the Creek. A court decision ordered that the companies compromise. The railroad was to cross the creek using a viaduct; the canal was to build what became the Catoctin Aqueduct, which quickly became recognized as the most beautiful aqueduct on the canal.

Unfortunately for the canal system, by 1850 when the C&O Canal finally completed the stretch that reached Cumberland, the B&O Railroad had already been puffing in and out of Cumberland for eight years. Ten years later, the U.S. had 30,000 miles of track, and it was clear the country was going to rely on rail power.

The C&O Canal continued to operate, primarily bringing coal out of the Allegheny Mountains, but by 1924 the canal was no longer being used. In 1938 the United States acquired the property, declaring it the C&O Canal National Historical Park. World War II halted conversion of the area but by 1961 President Dwight D. Eisenhower declared it a national monument, which revived interest.

In 1973 a series of floods brought down two of the three arches of the Catoctin Aqueduct. Five years later an unattractive but functional steel bridge was built so that hikers and bikers could cross the creek. Few must have focused on the magnificent pieces of granite that lay in the stream where the aqueduct collapsed.

When George Lewis, D.V.M. and formerly in the employ at nearby Fort Detrick, moved to a house nearby, he knew he was seeing a treasure hidden in plain sight. He began to explore the idea of rebuilding the aqueduct, and now Lewis serves as the president of what has become the Catoctin Aqueduct Restoration fund.

After a great deal of local campaigning, Lewis’ organization gained some additional money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. As of last winter, they had enough money to take bids to get the project underway.

This spring, only a few weeks before the restoration project broke ground, I had the opportunity to walk the tow path with George Lewis and John Jones, from Journey through Hallowed Ground, and the preparation was impressive. Workers had already fished out of the water the many pieces of granite that had collapsed into the creek, and the pieces were identified and laid out like a giant jigsaw puzzle just waiting to be assembled.

While the west has the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone, the senior U.S. Senator from Maryland, Barbara Mikulski, summed up the importance of the C&O Park at the groundbreaking in April of 2010: “They can talk about other national parks, but the parks in Maryland represent how America was won and built.”

Buy a stone to help support this project, and come visit in 2011. The restoration is to be completed by then. http://www.catoctinaqueduct.org/adoptastone.htm

In a few weeks I’ll re-visit this story and tell you about a young woman’s life along the river, living in one of the lock houses.
http://americacomesalive.com