Today we visited the Great Falls in Northern Virginia, about 10 miles above Washington DC on the Potomac River, which borders Virginia and Maryland.
Dropping 76 feet within a mile, the Potomac River, like the rest of Virginia’s rivers, was impossible to navigate past the Fall Line.
GEORGE WASHINGTON’S VISION
Envisioning a future in the west, George Washington knew the best way to trade would be with a canal on the Potomac River.
Convincing the state legislatures of Virginia and Maryland to create the Patowmack Company in 1785, Washington found himself bequeathed with the position of president of the company.
Interestingly this led delegates in 1785 from the two states to meet at Washington’s home, where they formed the Mount Vernon Compact, providing free trade on the Potomac.
When their states ratified the contract, all 13 states were invited to Annapolis in 1786: to consider how far a uniform system in their commercial regulations may be necessary to their common interest.
Because of a lack of quorum at the Annapolis Convention, the states called a meeting in Philadelphia, the Constitutional Convention of 1787, to help resolve interstate interests through a system better than the Articles of Confederation.
HIKING ALONG THE RIVER
After viewing the Great Falls from three different platforms providing different angles and elevations to view, we hiked along the river, below the falls.
HIKING THE PATOWMACK CANAL
Then we returned to the falls by hiking in the woods along the remnants of the Patowmack Canal, commissioned by George Washington in 1785.
The stone walls are remnants of the old canal, while the walking path is the old towpath.
Needing to skirt five areas of rapids, five separate canals were built, Little Falls, Great Falls, Senaca Falls, Payne’s Falls, and House Falls, the last three of which did not need locks.
With the Great Falls the most daunting obstacle, it took seventeen years to complete the canal.
Finally opening in 1802, the Great Falls canal attracted enough business for a town to quickly develop, named Matilda, by Light Horse Harry Lee, after his first wife.
Processing through the canal were thousands of boats carrying products between Georgetown in Washington, D.C. and Cumberland, Maryland.
Due to freezing winters and summer droughts, operation of the canal ran from February to May.
As a result of debt incurred from massive construction costs with limited usage of the canal, the success of the Erie Canal powered out the Patowmack Canal, which closed in 1828.
The Little Falls section of the canal, which had two of their locks named George and Martha, was repurposed for the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal in 1831.
FLOOD WATERS
To help give perspective, my son is standing on one side of the flood marker sign so that you can see the falls in the background.
Moving to the front of the markers, my son shows perspective on the depth of past flood waters.
