(1785 - 1828), which built the Patowmack Canal
Planning the canal Few ventures were dearer to
George Washington than his plan to make the
Potomac River navigable as far as the
Ohio River Valley. In the uncertain period after the
Revolutionary War, Washington believed that better transportation and trade would draw lands west of the
Allegheny Mountains into the United States and "bind those people to us by a chain which never can be broken." "The way," Washington wrote, "is easy and dictated by our clearest interest. It is to open a wide door, and make a smooth way for the produce of that Country to pass to our Markets." As a
waterway west, the Potomac River could be that "door." It was the shortest potential route between
Tidewater, with access to East Coast and trans-Atlantic trade, and the headwaters of the Ohio River, with access to the western frontier. But both political and physical obstacles had to be overcome. Opening the Potomac required cooperation of
Virginia and
Maryland, both of which bordered the river. In 1784, Washington convinced the states' assemblies to establish a company to improve the Potomac between its headwaters near
Cumberland, Maryland, and tidewater at
Georgetown. The
Patowmack Company, organized May 17, 1785, drew directors and subscribers from both states. Then, Washington wrote in his diary, the office of president of the Patowmack Company "fell upon me." He presided over the project until he became the nation's chief executive (President of the United States). Delegates from Virginia and Maryland, meeting at
Washington's home in 1785, drew up the Mount Vernon Compact, providing for free trade on the river. Virginia and Maryland legislators ratified the compact and then invited all 13 states to send delegates to a convention in
Annapolis in 1786 "to consider how far a uniform system in their commercial regulations may be necessary to their common interest." The Annapolis Convention led to a general meeting in
Philadelphia the following May. Thus, George Washington's lobbying for interstate cooperation on the Potomac helped prepare the way for the
Constitutional Convention of 1787.
Building the canals Five skirting canals were made: Little Falls, Great Falls, Seneca Falls (across from Seneca Creek), Payne's Falls of the Shenendoah, and House Falls, (near
Harpers Ferry, Virginia, now
West Virginia). Three of the canals did not require locks: the Seneca Falls, House Falls, and Payne's Falls. Little Falls used wooden locks, which were not meant to be permanent. At Great Falls, the Potomac presented physical obstacles to travel as well. Narrow and winding in places, it drops over 600 feet in 200 miles from Cumberland to
sea level. Spring rains swell the river to dangerous heights; summer droughts can render it impassable. To make the river navigable by even shallow draft boats, the Patowmack Company had to dredge portions of the riverbed and skirt five areas of falls.
Little Falls Canal . The Little Falls canal ran 3814 yards on the Maryland side of the river. The original locks, near today's
Fletcher's Boat House, were made of wood, and the canal was finished in 1795. These wooden locks were replaced with stone locks in 1817, and had a lift of 37 feet. The first two locks were named "Martha" and "George" (after Martha Washington and George Washington). This canal was later repurposed for the
Chesapeake and Ohio Canal (C&O), partially as Feeder #1, and as the canal itself from Lock 5 to just before Fletcher's Boat House. The remains of the stone locks were destroyed when the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) built its
Georgetown Branch line c. 1910. (The rail line was later abandoned and converted to the
Capital Crescent Trail in the 1990s.)
Great Falls Canal By far the most demanding task was building a canal with locks to bypass the
Great Falls of the Potomac River. Roaring over the rocks, the river drops nearly 80 feet in less than a mile. Swift currents, solid rock, and constant financial and labor problems hindered progress on the Patowmack Canal at Great Falls. Construction begun in 1785 and took seventeen years to complete - six years longer than the time required to locate, build, and begin occupying a new federal city,
Washington, D.C., ten miles downriver. Construction required engineering skills and a labor force not easily found in 18th century America. Crews consisted of unskilled laborers, skilled indentured servants, and slaves rented from nearby plantations. The work was difficult and dangerous. With one of the earliest uses in this country of black-powder blasting, workers forced a channel through the rock cliffs for the final three locks. The canal is 1,820 yards long and was completed in 1801, and opened to traffic in 1802. Its five
locks raised or lowered boats to skirt around Great Falls, and were constructed of red sandstone from the
Seneca Quarry across the river in Maryland. Locking through the whole canal could be accomplished in about an hour. An entire town grew up around the construction site to serve as headquarters for the Patowmack Company and home for the workers. The town was named
Matildaville by its founder, the Revolutionary War hero
Light Horse Harry Lee. Harry Lee, the father of
Robert E. Lee, named the town for his first wife, Matilda Lee.
Seneca Falls Canal This canal was 1,320 yards long and despite going down 7 feet, had no locks, and is on the Virginia side. This was worked on in 1785. This was also called the
Bullring Canal by some boatmen (the falls also being called "Bullring Falls" according to Thomas Moore's 1820 writings), and was made up of two short skirting canals with a "short sheet of water about a quarter mile" between them. Note: There is a good deal of confusion, even in the Potomac Company Records, to the canals around Harpers Ferry, more than one being called the "Shenandoah Canal" (sometimes inaccurately).
Other improvements Some other tributaries to the Potomac had work done on them, such as
Conococheague Creek, the
Monocacy River,
Patterson Creek, South Branch, Cacpon Creek, Opequon Creek, and the
Shenandoah River.
Gondolas were one-use log rafts, about 60 by 10 feet, and held many tons of cargo.
Sharpers were flatbottomed boats 60 feet by 7 feet. These also were poled down the river, but were not used as much, since they could only get through the shallows of the Potomac 45 days per year during spring flooding. Wrecks and loss of cargo were probably frequent, since it is written that the people of Cooney (a hamlet near Little Falls) was well supplied with coal, flour, meat (etc.) from wrecks.
End of canal operations The
Erie Canal opened in 1825, and immediately became a rival, controlling a connection between the
Great Lakes and the
Eastern Seaboard. The Patowmack Company folded in 1828, turning over its assets and liabilities to the newly formed C&O Canal Company. The new company abandoned the Patowmack Canal (except for the section at Little Falls) in 1830 for an even more ambitious undertaking: a man-made waterway stretching from Georgetown to Pittsburgh. Although the Patowmack Company was a financial failure, its builders pioneered lock engineering and stimulated a wave of canal construction important to the country's development. Groundbreaking for the C&O Canal took place close to Lock 6, near the upstream side of the Little Falls Skirting Canal. In the end, the Little Falls skirting canal was modified and repurposed for the C&O Canal prism as well as becoming its feeder canal (Inlet #1), after some modifications. From Lock 5 to almost Fletcher's Boat House is the bed of the Little Falls Skirting Canal. George Washington did not live to see the completion of the navigation project that had been his obsession since youth. But he did take pride in visiting the canal during the construction to inspect its progress. He died in 1799, two years before the canal opened at Great Falls. But in the long run Washington's vision of a strong nation linked by a direct, long-distance trade network came true. His frequent toast, "
Success to the navigation of the Potomac!" became a footnote of American history. ==Current recreational use==