The Potomac River, cutting like a knife across the colonies and then the nation, has represented both a boundary and a lifeline to growth. For Indians and colonists, the river has been used to facilitate transportation. For Civil War armies, it served as a demarcation line between the North and the South; for slaves, it stood as the gateway to freedom.
A River Tied to a Nation’s Growth
The river has been tied to the growth of the nation from the start. Standing like an impenetrable wall, the Appalachian Mountains, stretching from Alabama to Canada, inhibited growth and expansion to the west. For centuries, there was no road by which to cross this barrier. Stretching for 405 miles from the Allegheny Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean, the Potomac was originally used by the Piscataway and Patawomeke Indian tribes, who inhabited the region for roughly 14,000 years. Cutting through the Blue Ridge mountains, the Potomac, along with the Hudson and the Susquehanna rivers, represented the only pathways from the colonies to the west. The name “Potomac” originated from the Anglicized version of the Algonquian word Patawomeke, a Native American tribe that lived along the southern banks of the Potomac River in Virginia.
John Smith Maps the Potomac (1608)
In June 1608, Captain John Smith and a crew of 14 men sailed a barge, built in England and transferred to the colonies for reassembly in Jamestown, up the Potomac River to map the river in hopes of mapping the geography, finding a northwest passage to the Pacific Ocea,n and to establish trade with the Native American tribes along the river. Smith ultimately traveled to the great falls of the Potomac before turning around. His map, published in 1612, would serve as the standard reference for cartographers for almost 60 years.
Robert Harper and the Birth of the Ferry
In 1747, Robert Harper, an architect from Philadelphia, chose an opening in the Blue Ridge Mountains, carved by the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers as a passageway to Winchester, Virginia. Harper had been commissioned to build a Quaker meeting house in the fledgling frontier town. Following completion of his assignment, Harper returned to the passageway, having recognized its commercial potential with western expansion. At the time, there was a primitive ferry operation across the river, established 14 years earlier by a squatter. Harper was an architect by trade but an entrepreneur at heart. Harper quickly arranged to take over the ferry and petition the Virginia colony for a charter to operate a business, thus establishing Mr. Harper’s Ferry.
George Washington on the Potomac
In 1748, at the age of 16, George Washington joined a surveying team funded by his neighbor, Lord Fairfax, to map untamed tracts in western Virginia. By 1752, Washington had completed close to 200 surveys covering almost 60,000 acres. This experience brought him to the attention of Virginia Lieutenant Governor Robert Dinwiddie. In 1753, the 21-year-old Washington was appointed as a major in the Virginia Militia and selected by Dinwiddie for a winter mission to Fort Le Boeuf (near modern-day Waterford, Pennsylvania). During this mission, Washington provided the Crown with valuable military intelligence as he mapped French military positions and rivers. One month following the defeat at Fort Necessity on June 3, 1754, Washington found himself canoeing down the Potomac seeking a route for military troops and supplies to Fort Cumberland in Maryland, 124 miles away. Here he encountered rapids covering 6 miles in the Harper’s Ferry region. Washington named this section the Shenandoah Falls. Washington drew a rough sketch of the Harper’s Ferry rapids, seeing the rapids as not an impediment to western travel but an opportunity to one day open the interior.
The Patowmack Company
In 1785, following the American Revolution and just thirty years after first coming to the Harper’s Ferry region, Washington formed and became the president of the Patowmack Company for the purpose of building canals around the unnavigable rapids of the river and to establish the river as the foremost west-to-east navigation artery. Washington’s vision for the Potomac later influenced the selection of Washington, D.C. as the nation’s capital, as Washington envisioned the city as the commercial gateway to the American frontier.
A Struggle Against the River
Despite his leadership and vision, the Patowmack Company struggled. The company faced constant problems as it struggled to build a canal along the Maryland shore to skirt the Shenandoah Falls. First, there was a shortage of laborers to do the work. While there existed slave labor, slave owners were unwilling to lease their slaves to the company due to the risk of damage to their chattels. The company lacked the machinery to remove the rocks and boulders from the river channels. Bad weather and flooding made work schedules unpredictable and difficult. The company would not complete a navigation channel from Georgetown to Cumberland until 1802, 14 months after Washington’s death.
The Armory at Harper’s Ferry
From his time surveying and from his experience with the Patowmack Company, Washington realized the potential of the land surrounding Mr. Harper’s Ferry. Here the Potomac not only ran toward the west, but it intersected with the Shenandoah River running south and west to the Shenandoah Valley. As President, Washington recognized the need for the nation to arm and defend itself. Washington asked Congress to establish federal armories and arsenals to ensure the nation’s defense. As a result, two armories were established: one in the north in Springfield, Massachusetts, where one already existed. For the southern armory, Washington insisted it be placed at Harper’s Ferry. Just 60 miles from the new capital, it had a navigable route to the interior. Ample water supply would provide energy for the machinery. Ample hardwoods would supply coal and wood for gun stocks. Veins of iron ore and numerous forges and furnaces would supply gun barrels and lock plates. Mr. Harper’s Ferry and the work of the Patowmack Company would assist in vital supplies reaching the armory and weapons manufactured by the armory reaching the frontier and the nation’s capital. Workers and settlers would move into this former frontier territory seeking advantages that came from a federal manufacturing facility.
Canals, Railroads, and a Growing Town
While Washington’s company may have floundered, his idea had merit. Following on the success of the Erie Canal, the C&O (Chesapeake and Ohio) Canal Company picked up from the work of the Patowmack Company. Not to be outdone, the B&O (Baltimore and Ohio) Railroad would compete for a route through the Blue Ridge and Alleghenies to serve the demand for western migration. Harper’s Ferry, once an isolated pathway to the west, would quickly grow in size and importance.
