<Tr> <Th> End point </Th> <Td> Cumberland, MD (originally Sections to Pittsburgh, PA never built) </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Connects to </Th> <Td> Alexandria Canal (Virginia), Goose Creek & Little River Navigation </Td> </Tr> <P> The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, abbreviated as the C&O Canal and occasionally called the "Grand Old Ditch," operated from 1831 until 1924 along the Potomac River from Washington, D.C., to Cumberland, Maryland . The canal's principal cargo was coal from the Allegheny Mountains . </P> <P> Construction on the 184.5 - mile (296.9 km) canal began in 1828 and ended in 1850 with the completion of a 50 - mile stretch to Cumberland . Rising and falling over an elevation change of 605 feet (184 meters), it required the construction of 74 canal locks, 11 aqueducts to cross major streams, more than 240 culverts to cross smaller streams, and the 3,118 ft (950 m) Paw Paw Tunnel . A planned section to the Ohio River at Pittsburgh was never built . </P>

Where does the c and o canal start