C&O Canal Foundry Turned Veterinary Hospital

The Duvall Foundry at Lock 3 on the C&O Canal in Georgetown was once used as a veterinary hospital (click on picture to enlarge).

Work began on the C&O Canal in 1828 after the Erie Canal in New York and Pennsylvania had proved to be such a success. President John Quincy Adams turned the first spadeful of earth at Little Falls, Maryland, on July 4, 1828. Work on the Canal was finally completed in Cumberland, Maryland, in 1850. Completed, the Canal is 184-miles long, with 74 lift locks to accommodate a rise of 605 feet, 11 stone aqueducts spanning major Potomac tributaries, 7 dams supplying water to the canal, hundreds of culverts carrying roads and streams beneath the canal, and a 3,117-foot tunnel carrying the canal through a large shale rock formation.

The C&O Canal’s principal cargo was Ohio coal, and during the peak year of 1871, 850,000 tons were carried down the canal, but competition from the railroad soon started to carve into the economic viability of the Canal.

The canal parallels the Potomac River for most of its 184-mile length, and erosion during periods of severe flooding would erode the western bank of the canal causing costly repairs. Following a devastating flood in 1924 the C&O Canal ceased commercial operation. In 1938 it was announced that a 22-mile section between Georgetown and Seneca would be “restored to its former physical state as a historic site” under the management of the National Parks Service. In 1961, President Eisenhower proclaimed the Canal a national monument, and in 1971 an act of Congress authorized the acquisition of additional land and establishment of the C&O Canal National Historical Park.

In 1975 a redeveloped Duvall Foundry opened with nearly 216,000 square feet of mixed-use commercial space in six stories, with two retail floors anchored by a restaurant and movie theater complex. Today "The Foundry Building" is an office space.