Friday, December 3, 2010
by Andrea Sachs, Washington Post

Clear Spring, Md. — As a guest at Lockhouse 49, I was charged with the same job as its past inhabitants: overseeing a lock along the C&O Canal and upholding a tradition recently updated for the modern traveler.

Of course, the locks of now are vastly different from the locks of then. Those of yore manipulated the water levels of the canal, helping cargo-laden boats pass through the tricky spots between Cumberland, Md., and Georgetown. ...