History

The Patowmack 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 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.

The Patowmack Company

Opening the Potomac required cooperation of Virginia and Maryland, which bordered the river. In 1784, Washington convinced the states' assemblies to establish a company to improve the Potomac between its headwaters near Cumberland, Md., and tidewater at Georgetown. The Patowmack Company, organized May 17, 1785, drew directors and subscribers from both states.

The office of president, Washington wrote in his diary, "fell upon me." He presided over the project until he became the nation's chief executive.

The Canal and the Constitution

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.

Construction of the Canal

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 down river.

The work force was composed of hired hands, indentured servants, and slaves rented from local landowners. The river's swift currents, solid rock, and constant financial and labor problems hindered progress on the Patowmack Canal at Great Falls.

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.

Matildaville

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.

Matildaville, at its height, boasted the company superintendent's house, a market, gristmill, sawmill, foundry, inn, ice house, workers' barracks, boarding houses, and a sprinkling of small homes. Boaters stopped here to wait their turn through the locks, to change cargo, or to enjoy an evening in town before continuing their journey.

Transportation on the River

Thousands of boats locked through at Great Falls, carrying flour, whiskey, tobacco, and iron downstream; carrying cloth, hardware, firearms, and other manufactured products upstream.

Vessels varied from crudely constructed rafts to the long narrow "sharper," a keelboat that could carry up to 20 tons of cargo. The trip took 3 to 5 days down to Georgetown and 10 to 12 days poling against the current back to Cumberland.

The Fate of the Canal and Matildaville

The greatest obstacle to the Patowmack project proved to be financial. High construction costs, particularly at the Great Falls section, and insufficient revenues bankrupted the company. Extremes of high and low water restricted use of the canal to only a month or two each year. The tolls collected could not even pay interest on the company debt.

The Patowmack Company succumbed in 1828, turning over its assets and liabilities to the newly formed Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company. The new company abandoned the Patowmack Canal in 1830 for an even more ambitious undertaking: a man-made waterway stretching from Georgetown to Cumberland on the Maryland side of the river.

Built to support the canal industry, Matildaville's fate was tied to that of the Patowmack Company. Today, only a few fragile remains of Matildaville are visible.

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.

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.

In the long run Washington's vision of a strong nation linked by trade came true. His frequent toast, "Success to the navigation of the Potomac!" became a footnote of American history.

A National Park

In 1930 Congress authorized this place of human history and natural beauty as a park. The National Park Service took on responsibility for its management in 1966.

Today Great Falls Park, a unit of the George Washington Memorial Parkway, protects and preserves the ruins of the Patowmack Canal and Matildaville.

The preservation of the Patowmack Canal is part of the Park Service's continuing efforts to protect and preserve special resources of the park.

The Patowmack Canal and Matildaville ruins are protected by the Archeological Resources Protection Act of 1979. This law prohibits excavation, removal, or displacement of archeological resources.

Timeline

10,500 BC

Paleo-Indians were the first people known to inhabit the area.

The area around Great Falls served as a meeting place for Native Americans, especially members of the Powhatan Confederacy and the Iroquois Nation.

1649

King Charles II of England gave all the land between the Rappahanock and Potomac rivers to seven Englishmen as property.

1719

Thomas (6th Baron) Lord Fairfax inherited the property.

1737

Thomas Lord Fairfax set aside 12,588 acres in the area of Great Falls for himself.

1759

Bryan (8th Baron) Lord Fairfax (close friend of George Washington) received some of the land near Great Falls from his cousin, Thomas Lord Fairfax.

1785-1828

The Patowmack Canal Company constructed and operated at Great Falls one of five skirting canals designed to make the Potomac River navigable to the Ohio River Valley. The town of Matildaville (chartered in 1790) served as headquarters for the Company and home for the workers. The company went bankrupt and turned over its assets to the newly formed Chesapeake and Ohio Canal company in 1828.

1833

Much of the property that is now Great Falls Park was acquired by Albert Fairfax and later sold at auction to pay debts. It was purchased by three men: Hall Neilson, Thomas C. Jones, and William A. Bradley.

1839

Neilson, Jones, and Bradley organized the Great Falls Manufacturing Company to develop a large textile milling operation utilizing water power from the river. They re-chartered Matildaville as South Lowell, modeling it after the textile mill town of Lowell, Massachusetts.

1855-1867

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers constructed the Aqueduct Dam (the park's northern boundary) to supply water for the District of Columbia.

1895-1900

The Great Falls Manufacturing Company was reorganized as the Great Falls Power Company in order to develop hydroelectric power, but later sold out to the Potomac Electric and Power Company.

1906

Great Falls Amusement Park opened and a light rail line was built from Georgetown to Great Falls. The rail line eventually merged with the Washington and Old Dominion Railroad.

1912

The Daughters of the American Revolution placed a brass plaque on a boulder overlooking the falls, to honor George Washington.

1930

Congress enacted the Capper-Crampton Act, which established the George Washington Memorial Parkway. It included a provision that Great Falls Park would eventually be included to provide protection and preservation for the historic Patowmack Canal and the natural scenery.

1947-1952

Potomac Edison Power Company (PEPCO) became the sole owner of about 800 acres of the area. The Washington and Old Dominion Railroad continued to own and operate the amusement park until 1952.

1952

Fairfax County purchased 16 acres from the railroad. These 16 acres became the county's first park land. The owner of the original carousel dismantled and sold it because he "did not want to work for the county." Another carousel began operation in 1954 and continued operations until 1972, when it was destroyed by Hurricane Agnes.

1956

The Nature Conservancy made efforts to explore ways to preserve the area still owned by PEPCO.

1958

Fairfax County planned to condemn the PEPCO property with intentions of starting a county park.

1960

The National Park Service (NPS) leased the property from PEPCO and the land was administered jointly by the NPS and Fairfax County.

1965

The NPS was authorized to acquire 783 acres at Great Falls. The NPS signed an agreement with Fairfax County to acquire the County's 16 acres.

1966

NPS acquired the Great Falls land and started operations of Great Falls Park as a unit of the George Washington Memorial Parkway.

1969

The Patomack Canal Historic District was designated a National Civil Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers. A commemorative brass plaque was placed on a boulder next to Lock 1 of the Canal.

1983

The ruins of the Patowmack Canal and Matildaville were declared a National Historic Landmark by the Secretary of the Interior.