Canal Parks, Museums and Characters of the Mid-Atlantic

In search of an off-beat day trip? This book offers basic information for the casual visitor to canal parks, museums and related historic sites in Pennsylvania, Maryland and New Jersey. It includes a guide to attractions along the famed Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historic Park, the Allegheny Portage Railroad National Historic Site (where a railroad carried canal boats over a mountain) the National Canal Museum, as well as to canal towns, small museums and out-of-the way canal restorations. The book includes maps, illustrations, historic photographs, a list of canal-related events, publications and organizations.

If the trip piques your interest in canal history, the book offers an overview of the canal era, lively accounts of how the canals were built and vignettes about the 19th-century leaders who got the job done. Check out the excerpts section for the story of Mathew Carey and a brief summary of Pennsylvania's canal history.

Finally, you'll find ways to get involved with canal societies and an overview of the canal restoration movement. The book also describes how canal restoration projects are being used as tool for economic development.