VOA标准英语2010-Tired of Racing Hither and Yon?

You can relax and go slow — very slow — on the C&O Canal

Ted¹ Landphair | Washington, DC 29 April 2010
 

This is the famous Paw Paw Tunnel on the canal, through which boats could travel only one way at a time. The tunnel bypasses a section of the Potomac River containing five horseshoe bends.

In the early 19th Century, it was thought that canals, in which boats and barges² were pulled by mules⁴ along an adjacent towpath, would revolutionize commerce and travel.  One of them — the Erie Canal — opened the West to commerce by connecting New York's Hudson River with the Great Lakes in the heartland.  It made its backers rich.

Financiers in the Washington, D.C., area also knew what canals meant to cities like Venice in Italy and Tsaritsyn — later called Stalingrad and Volgograd — in Russia.  So they hurried to build a new Chesapeake & Ohio Canal from the old port of Georgetown in Washington to Pittsburgh in western Pennsylvania.

The Potomac River flows from Georgetown into the Chesapeake Bay, and Pittsburgh is on the Ohio River. Hence the Chesapeake & Ohio name.

 

A lock on the C&O Canal, near the place where the canal begins in Washington's Georgetown section.

The portion along the Potomac — 296 kilometers (184 miles) long — was completed to Cumberland in western Maryland in 1850.

It provided a calm, safe route west next to the river, which is nearly dry upstream part of the year but whose rapids rage in springtime.  At its peak in the 1870s, more than 500 long, narrow boats carried cargo⁵ on the canal.  Mule³ stables dotted the route.

But the canal company ran out of money as faster railroads stole most of their business, and the C&O Canal never reached Pittsburgh and the Ohio River.

Susan Brown Chase's 1916 drawing of a C&O Canal lockmaster's house.

Remnants of its 74 stone locks, as well as brick aqueducts that brought it water from the river, remain. So does one long tunnel, just wide enough for one boat to get through.

A famous standoff took place there when boats arrived from each direction, and neither captain would back off.  Finally a canal company official showed up and set fire to sheaves of green corn to literally⁶ smoke the boatsmen out of the tunnel.

In the Washington area, the C&O Canal still holds water.  The National Park Service runs replica⁷ boats out of Georgetown.  They're a big tourist attraction.  And most of the old towpath remains⁸, all the way to Cumberland.  It's a beautiful, wild trail for hikers, bikers, horseback riders — and canal lovers.
 

1 ted   

vt.翻晒，撒，撒开

参考例句：

• The invaders gut ted the village.侵略者把村中财物洗劫一空。
• She often teds the corn when it's sunny.天好的时候她就翻晒玉米。

2 barges   

驳船( barge的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The tug is towing three barges. 那只拖船正拖着三只驳船。
• There were plenty of barges dropping down with the tide. 有不少驳船顺流而下。

3 mule   

n.骡子，杂种，执拗的人

参考例句：

• A mule is a cross between a mare and a donkey.骡子是母马和公驴的杂交后代。
• He is an old mule.他是个老顽固。

4 mules   

骡( mule的名词复数 )； 拖鞋； 顽固的人； 越境运毒者

参考例句：

• The cart was pulled by two mules. 两匹骡子拉这辆大车。
• She wore tight trousers and high-heeled mules. 她穿紧身裤和拖鞋式高跟鞋。

5 cargo   

n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物

参考例句：

• The ship has a cargo of about 200 ton.这条船大约有200吨的货物。
• A lot of people discharged the cargo from a ship.许多人从船上卸下货物。

6 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

7 replica   

n.复制品

参考例句：

• The original conservatory has been rebuilt in replica.温室已按原样重建。
• The young artist made a replica of the famous painting.这位年轻的画家临摹了这幅著名的作品。

8 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。