Movie Clips

These videos are available on the American Memory site hosted by the Library of Congress.  The film was made in 1917 by a crew working for Thomas Edison studios.  They filmed a trip on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal along the Potomac River.  By 1917, the technology had not really changed much, so these films provide a sample of what travel on the Chemung Canal must have been like.

Part I

In this movie, the viewer can see what happened when two canal boats passed one another going in opposite directions.  One boat would drop its towline into the water to allow the other boat to pass over it.  Once the other boat passed, the slack in the towline was taken up.

In this last film clip, it shows the mules, or "donks" as they call them, being changed.  Two are put on board the canal boat and two rested mules are brought out to work on the towpath.