In 1843, the Potomac Aqueduct Bridge was constructed near the present-day Key Bridge to connect the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal to the Alexandria Canal which led to Alexandria, Virginia.[9] By the time the canal reached Cumberland in 1850, it had already been rendered obsolete; the B&O Railroad had reached Cumberland eight years previously.[10] Debt-ridden, the company dropped its plan to continue construction of the next 180 miles of the canal into the Ohio valley.