Navigate the tour by using the buttons on the bottom of each page.
Welcome to the virtual tour of the Towpath Trail within Cuyahoga Valley National Park. You can view the sites in order from north to south by clicking the 'Next Stop' button at the bottom of each page or you can pick and choose from the Towpath Trail sites to visit list. Click on the trailhead name links for detailed directions and maps of the trailhead locations. An online Towpath Trail map is also available. The Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trailhead Orientation
Business boomed. Within one year of the canal’s opening to Akron the amount of wheat shipped through Cleveland increased from 1,000 to 250,000 bushels. By 1840, 2.2 million bushels arrived in Cleveland by canal. Ohio quickly grew in population and wealth, going from near bankruptcy in 1819 to the third most prosperous state in two decades. By the late 1800s, expanding railroads and the canal’s poor management caused its decline. The great flood of 1913 finally ended canal operations. Today, this 20-mile Towpath Trail follows the part of the Ohio & Erie Canal within Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Accessibility - The trail is level and hard-packed for visitors using wheelchairs, bicycles, and strollers. No motorized vehicles are permitted, except motorized wheelchairs. For Your Safety
The exhibit contains an historic photograph of a canal boat being pulled by mules with a caption reads: "Rapid Transit" during the canal era. Canal boats were usually powered by three mules. Hitched to the boats by towlines, these mules could work eight hours pulling 80 tons of cargo. Locations: The orientation exhibits are located at each trailhead on the Towpath Trail. The following is a list of those trailheads from north to south. You can click on the name of a trailhead to get a map of the area and a location description.
About the sandstone
background image. Use your browser's <Back> button to return to the previous page.
Last
Updated:
Wednesday, 22-Dec-2004 09:50:42 Eastern Standard Time
|
The
following text appears on the orientation exhibits located at each trailhead:
Begun in 1825, the first 38-mile section of the Ohio & Erie Canal
connected Cleveland to Akron by 1827. The 395-foot rise from Lake Erie
to the Portage Summit in Akron required 44 lift locks. In 1832, the
entire 308-mile canal to the Ohio River at Portsmouth opened and shortened
the trip across Ohio to four days.
