| The Floating E is located on a peninsula of West Virginia land that forms the
Paw
Paw Bends of the Potomac River. The land was first surveyed by George Washington and his brother Laurence back in the 1740s and there’s a rumor that George may have camped there once.
The countryside proved so rugged that the builders of the C&O Canal, which parallels the Potomac River along the 180 miles from Washington DC to Cumberland, MD, decided to dig a 3,118-foot-long tunnel (learn more about the Paw Paw Tunnel below ) through a mountain as a shortcut rather than attempt to build the canal along the winding river. The Paw Paw Tunnel is located in Maryland, deep within the rugged cliffs directly across the river from the Floating E in West Virginia.
Following the Civil War, the entire peninsula where the Floating E sits today was owned by Daniel and Bridgett Bevans, whose descendents would farm the land for nearly a century. In fact, we’ve named the two bald eagles that nest across the river from our property Bridgett and Daniel in honor of those originals owners.
The land was divided and sold in the mid-1970s. The property and house comprising The Floating E were purchased by us, the McClain family in 2003. We named the property itself in honor of Elvis Presley just for fun. We then spent two years renovating the world’s ugliest shack into the now-charming and delightful Long Time Gone Cabin, which is available for rental year-round
The Paw Paw Tunnel--Part of Historic C&O Canal
The Floating E property sits on the section of the Potomac River known as the Paw Paw Bends. This is a spectacular section of countryside where the river makes four or five sweeping, 180-degree turns between steep cliffs and dense forest.
Construction of the Paw Paw Tunnel began in 1836 and engineers estimated it would take about two years to complete. They were so very wrong!
The English, Irish, Welsh and German workers imported to do the work were armed with only dynamite, shovels and picks, and they chiseled through the mountain at a glacially slow pace, gaining only about 12 feet per week. Cave-ins, poor working conditions, unpaid wages, cholera, violence, and even murder plagued the project, which would eventually take 14 years to complete at a cost of more than $600,000. Millions of tons of coal, farm products, and various manufactured goods were carried back and forth by mules and canal boats through the tunnel until 1924, when railways and highways became a more efficient mode of transportation.
Just decades after it was completed, new technology rendered it obsolete, and today the Paw Paw Tunnel is maintained as part of the C&O Canal National Historical Site by U.S. Park Service.
Paw Paw, West Virgnia--famous for what exactly?
In addition to the tunnel, the town of Paw
Paw is famous for…well, to be honest, not a lot beyond the river, the hiking trails of the C&O Canal and the natural beauty of the region. And when you think about it…what else do you need?
If you'd like more information about our location, please drop us an email at getaway@westvacabin.com. Specific directions for reaching the property will be provided once your reservation is made and your booking is complete.
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