I accessed Big Pool through Fort Frederick; so I entered at the downstream, stop-gate end. The stop-gate is gone and a vehicle bridge now spans the walls of the gate.

According to Thomas Hahn, Big Pool was made when the builders of the C&O Canal decided to use a ridgeline as the berm side and just build the towpath side of the canal. That let the entire area fill with water creating a “Big Pool.” Some say that it has some good fishing. This large body of water extends for about mile from the stop gate on the downstream end to the Western Maryland Railroad Bridge at the upper end.

About in the middle is an old spillway that is over 100 feet in length. Hahn says that when the canal was operating, the mules would walk through the water in the spillway and the drivers would walk across wooden planks supported by piers above the spillway. That could very well be true; however, notice the photos of the piers for the wooden walkway; they are right at the drop-off (of about 15 feet or so) side of the spillway and they are not very wide. Unless there was an elaborate safety rail on that walkway, I think I would have preferred to get my feet wet!!

My personal theory is this: On the downstream end of the spillway is a stone section of the spillway that is somewhat lower than the rest. I would suggest that this was where normal overflow went; the rest of the spillway was for emergency drainage and was dry almost all the operational times of the canal. This way, you just had some wooden planks over a small section for mules and people to walk over; a lot safer as well. During heavy runoffs when the large spillway was flooded, you probably didn’t have people and boats trying to get past; the current pulling at those pretty cumbersome and un-seaworthy boats would have been substantial and dangerous.

All the way to the end of Big Pool is the Western Maryland Railroad trestle that connected the main line of the Western Maryland (now a scenic trail) to the B&O Railroad across the Potomac River. This branch was known as “Cherry Run.”

“Cherry Run was a connection and interchange point with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. The WM had a small yard at Cherry Run that was served by WM freight trains that had stopped a Big Pool, dropped their train, and backed down to the yard to set off or pickup cars from the B&O.” [From the Western Maryland Railway: West Subdivision Web Site]

“Big Pool was reached by the WM in 1892 to connect with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) across the river at Cherry Run, WV. This new connection allowed for increased traffic that made this part of the WM the busiest on the entire railroad. In the spring of 1904 the building of the Cumberland Extension began here at Big Pool. The Western Maryland reached Hancock by December of that year and Cumberland by March 1906. … Also, back in the early steam days at Big Pool there was a huge wooden trestle constructed here. It was used to unload coal from hoppers and fill passing steam locomotives.”

[http://www.wmwestsub.com/bigpool.htm has lots of old photos of the early trestles and WM equipment.]

The railroad from Cherry Run east is still being used by the CSX, so be careful!

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