Before the opening of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal in Harpers Ferry (West Virginia née Virginia), considerable amounts of coal were carried via the Potomac River. Since timber was an abundant resource, flat boats, called “gondolas” (a spoof on Venetian rowing boats), were constructed to navigate the "black diamonds" down river to markets around Washington, DC. There, both the boat and cargo were sold and the boatmen returned home by foot. The railroad cars first employed in the haulage of coal were thus named after these shallow-draft boats called “gondola cars.”