LOCK 44

The pitch

Lock 44 puts you on the berm at Williamsport, Maryland, in 1876 as keeper of a real lift lock on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. Loaded boats come down from Cumberland with coal, timber and flour, and light boats work back up with store goods.

The chamber, bypass flume, lockhouse and towpath are laid out from survey data, period records and National Park Service documentation of Lock 44. The lock is tended around the clock: at night the keeper carries a lantern and the sky shows the real constellations. This is an early build.

Screenshots

How to play

1. Click a control plate. The keeper walks to it before he works it.
2. Open or close the gates. They only move against matched water.
3. Fill or drain the lock with the paddles once both gates are shut.
4. Pass boats through in both directions to make the day's quota.
5. Keep going through the night. The day starts at 5 a.m.

Controls

Details

• One lift lock, 100 by 15 feet with a 10-foot lift, sited from survey and park records
• Boats with period names, home ports and register numbers
• Mule teams on the towpath
• A full day and night, lamps at the gates and real constellations
• Music: 'Low Bridge, Everybody Down' (1905, public domain)

Facts