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Cape Charles ya c h t c e n t e r Cape Charles, Va
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Chesapeake City
Come for the history, stay for the food. Story and photos by Craig Ligibel
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A Dutchman’s dream
ugustine Herman was a dreamer. More than 350 years ago, this Czech-born, Dutch mapmaker had a crazy idea to build a waterway connecting the Chesapeake Bay to the Delaware River. Lacking the means to undertake such a monumental project, he took it upon himself to construct a cart path linking the two bodies of water, thus facilitating his tobacco trade from Virginia to Europe and
further solidifying his stature as “the first citizen” of Maryland. It wasn’t until the early 1800s that a coalition of entities, including the state governments of Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Delaware, with additional backing from the United States government and private individuals, reconstituted what was then called the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal Company. With a budget of around
##The Chesapeake Inn’s al fresco dining offers a wide menu of local favorites.
##Big boats and small boats share the waterway.
38 April 2016 PropTalk.com
$2 million (soon raised to $3.5 million), the task at hand was to dig a canal 10 feet deep and 66 feet wide over a distance of approximately 14 miles. Work began in earnest on the canal in 1824. More than 2600 men worked in hellish conditions for five years to complete the 19th century version of “The Big Dig.” Laborers were paid a daily wage of 75 cents. Their task was compounded by the continual landslides that dumped approximately 375,000 cubic yards of mud, rock, and sludge back into the canal over the three-mile section called the Deep Cut. Today, the C and D Canal is the busiest canal in the United States and one of the three busiest in the world. More than 25,000 vessels of all shapes and sizes transit the canal each year. More than 40 percent of the commercial shipping into and out of the Port of Baltimore comes through the canal. Its use saves an estimated 40 million gallons of fuel annually. This waterway shortcut is managed by the U.S. Corps of Engineers. It cuts approximately 300 miles off a trip between Philadelphia and Baltimore. Built originally as a canal with several sets of locks to facilitate passage, the canal is now a sea level route more than 450 feet wide and 35 feet deep, You can learn all about the C and D Canal and the men who built it by visiting the well-laid-out C and D Canal Museum located at the site of one of the canal’s early locks on the outskirts of Chesapeake City. If you’re lucky, you can also talk your way