Group Marks C&O Canal Event's 60th Anniversary

WILLIAMSPORT, Md. (AP) -- Supporters of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park are hitting the trail in Williamsport to mark the 60th anniversary of a hike that helped preserve it.

The C&O Canal Association has scheduled a series of hikes Saturday and Sunday, commemorating the long walk of U.S. Supreme Court Justice William Douglas.

Douglas led a group along the entire, 184.5-mile length of the canal in 1954, from Cumberland to Washington's Georgetown neighborhood. He succeeded in killing a plan to replace the old shipping route with a road along the Maryland bank of the Potomac River.

The towpath is now a hiking and biking trail visited by more than 4.7 million people in 2012. It connects in Cumberland to the Great Allegheny Passage, a trail that ends in Pittsburgh.

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