BGuthrie Photos: MD -- White's Ferry

MD -- White's Ferry:

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Description of Pictures: This was the first time I'd ever crossed the river using the ferry. It was interesting!

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Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

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[1] WHITES_080922_001.JPG	[2] WHITES_080922_006.JPG
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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. WHITES_080922_106.JPG: You can see the metal cable on the left side (upriver) of the barge. That's Maryland across the way.
2. WHITES_080922_111.JPG: Virginia's on the right
3. WHITES_080922_131.JPG: The guy on the left is yelling at me to move my car
4. WHITES_080922_140.JPG: Ernest Conrad established a ferry at this point in 1828. He charged "6-1/4 cents per man, mule, or horse, 3 cents for a head of cattle." Carriages were a steep price of 6-1/4 cents per wheel. Soon after the conclusion of the Civil War in 1865, Col EV White, a former Confederate officer, bought the ferry operation and in 1871, the name was changed from Conrads Ferry to Whites Ferry. The ferry passed through several owners and the operation was updated by the use of a metal cable in 1871 and a gasoline engine in 1919. The old wooden barge was destroyed in the flood of 1942, halting ferry operations. In 1946, the current owners purchased the defunct business and reopened the ferry using a wooden army surplus barge. The steel barge now being used was purchased in 1953. The boat is named after the Civil War General Jubal A Early and is propelled using a diesel tug. This is the only ferry in operation on the Potomac River. It connects Loudoun County, Virginia, with Montgomery County, Maryland and is in continuous operation except for periods of high water or ice. The old iron bridge nearby was used to carry traffic across the C&O Canal, providing access to Whites Ferry and at the same time, allowing canal boats to pass underneath. The stone abutments eliminated the piers which impeded canal navigation. It was constructed in 1876, and was used until canal operations ceased in 1924.
5. WHITES_080922_142.JPG: After canal successes in the 1820s and 1930s in the United States, the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company was formed in 1828. Promoters planned a canal some 360 miles long from Georgetown, on the Potomac River, to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on the Ohio River. On July 4, 1828 President John Quincy Adams began construction by breaking ground near Little Falls. Soon, competition with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad for land right-of-way caused the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company financial and legal difficulties. The stockholders were forced to abandon plans for the canal beyond Cumberland. Construction was completed in 1850. Canal boats carrying coal, flour, grains and lumber plied the canal until 1924, when floods and loss of traffic to railroads and highways caused its abandonment. The canal is 184.5 miles long. The total rise, or height above sea level, between Georgetown and Cumberland is approximately 605 feet. To compensate for the rise, there were 74 lift locks on the canal, each having the capacity to lift or lower a boat about 8 feet. In addition, 11 aqueducts carried the canal over major streams flowing into the Potomac River. A 3,118 foot tunnel carried the canal through a mountain, below Cumberland, thus avoiding 6 miles of construction through the so-called Paw Paw Bends. In the 1870s, during its heyday, as many as 540 boats per years were navigating the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. A typical boat measured 92 feet long and 14 feet 6 inches wide and carried 110 to 120 tons of cargo. Three to five mules were required for the boating "outfit"; two or three were in use whenever the boat was in motion. The relief team was carried "aboard boat." The boat captain and his family, or the crew, lived in a small aft cabin on the boat. In 1971, the canal was established as a National Historical Park by an Act of Congress. Today, the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal is enjoyed by millions of visitors interested in hiking, bicycling, and natural beauty.
6. WHITES_080922_163.JPG: White's Ferry Invasion or Liberation? -- Antietam Campaign 1862 -- The serenity of the Maryland countryside was shattered on September 4-6, 1862 as 35,000 Confederate soldiers of the Army of Northern Virginia waded across the Potomac River. Gen. Robert E Lee, hoping to rally support in the divided state, sent the bulk of his army across at White's Ford two miles north of here. The military operations would change the lives of the fighting men and affect local residents and businesses. The largely indifferent reaction to the Confederates as they entered Montgomery County was described by a Missouri soldier, "[I]nstead of an outburst over overflowing joy, at the sight of their deliverers, not one solitary soul had come to the River bank to see us cross or welcome us to the soil." A resident recalled the veteran troops as "the dirtiest, filthiest, piratical-looking, cutthroat men I ever saw... Yet there was a dash about them that the Northern men lacked." The invaders passed the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal via road culverts and bridges erected by their engineers. Walls of the canal were breached to disrupt commerce and the enemy's supply lines, but efforts to destroy the Monocacy Aqueduct were unsuccessful. As the largest part of the Confederate army marched toward Frederick, Gen JEB Stuart's cavalry formed a protective screen to the south.
7. WHITES_080922_169.JPG: Northern Snakehead Distinguishing Features: Long dorsal fin - small head - large mouth - big teeth - length up to 40 inches - weight up to 15 pounds HAVE YOU SEEN THIS FISH? The northern snakehead from China is not native to Maryland waters and could cause serious problems if introduced into our ecosystem. If you come across this fish, PLEASE DO NOT RELEASE. Please KILL this fish by cutting/bleeding or freezing and REPORT all catches to Maryland Department of Natural Resources Fisheries Service. Thank you.
8. WHITES_080922_205.JPG: White's Ferry: Before you is the last operating ferry on the Potomac River. Early settlers recognized these relatively still water would provide an ideal location for a ferry. The first known ferry operation here was Conrad's Ferry in 1817. After the Civil War, former Confederate soldier Elijah White purchased and made many improvements to the service. He named his ferry boat in honor of his former commander General Jubal Early. More than a convenient river crossing, the ferry provided a place of commerce between the canal and surrounding community. Farmers from Virginia used the ferry to get their crops to market in Washington DC, and Maryland via the canal. In the days before modern refrigeration, a farmer's access to reliable transportation meant the difference between prosperity and watching a year's worth of work rot in storage. Together the canal and the ferry shortened the time it took farmers to get goods to market. Today, White's Ferry continues to the serve the needs of its community to provide a safe river crossing and a living link to the past.
Wikipedia Description: White's Ferry
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

White's Ferry, originally Conrad's Ferry, is an inactive cable ferry service that carried cars, bicycles, and pedestrians across the Potomac River between Loudoun County, Virginia and Montgomery County, Maryland, and is the last one of its kind to cross the Potomac. The location offered fishing services and water recreation including canoeing. It transported between 600 and 800 customers daily until its operations were suspended indefinitely in 2020 due to a legal dispute over the land surrounding it.

History

Early settlers recognized that the relatively still waters of the Potomac River at the location would provide an ideal location for a ferry. One of the earliest mentions of the ferry appeared in an act of the Maryland General Assembly passed on December 27, 1791 (Liber JG. No. 1, folio 447):

Be it enacted, by the General Assembly of Maryland, that the following roads shall be laid out, surveyed, marked, bounded, and cleared in the manner herein directed, to wit: One road through Anne-Arundel county from the turnpike road in Baltimore county until it intersects the road from Frederick-town at the line of Frederick county, near William Hobbs's; one other road from Green's bridge, on Patuxent river, to the mouth of Monocacy, on Potowmack river, through Montgomery county; and one other road from Conrad Myer's ferry on Potowmack river aforesaid, until it intersects the road from Green's bridge aforesaid, to the mouth of Monocacy aforesaid, southwestward of the road leading from Frederick to George-town in Montgomery county aforesaid; and one other road from Conrad Myer's ferry on Potowmack river to the mouth of Seneca, or to intersect the road from Georgetown to the mouth of Monocacy, by way of Brooke Beall's mill on Watt's branch, in Montgomery county.

A road map published in the Maryland Land Records for Montgomery County in 1795 (Liber F-6, folio 195) showed a side road near Seneca Bridge coming off the main road between Georgetown and the mouth of the Monocacy River labeled "Road to Conrad Mire's ferry." Another early mention of the ferry appeared in the book: "The life and adventures of Robert Bailey, from his infancy up to December 1821" written by himself: "From the house of this good man, I crossed at Conrood's ferry, and went to Montgomery County, in Maryland, where I once more (after an absence of nearly six years,) had the heart feeling gratification of beholding my dear and affectionate mother and my kind and loving sister." Assuming the book is chronological, the crossing apparently took place after December 15, 1778. But, "The Moco Show" claims that the ferry was opened to the public in 1786. The following advertisement appeared in the National Intelligencer on Thursday, February 1, 1821: "Ranaway in September last, Abraham Dublin, a black man; from Geo. Ward, Montg. Co, Md; living about 17 miles from Gtwn, on the road leading to Coonrod's ferry." The first known ferry operation at the location was Conrad's Ferry, pronounced contemporaneously by the locals as "Coonrod's Ferry" in 1861. After the Civil War, former Confederate officer Elijah V. White purchased it and made many improvements to the service. He named his ferry boat in honor of his former commander, General Jubal Early. The ferry boat was renamed "Historic White's Ferry" in June 2020.
Currently, the ferry is owned by Malcolm Brown, whose father purchased the location in 1946 with other business partners. He eventually bought out his partners and shipped new ferries from Baltimore in 1953 and from Norfolk in 1988; both of which were named after Confederate General Jubal A. Early because of his, "rebellious, no surrender attitude".
The Confederate statue that had been moved from Rockville to White's Ferry in 2017, was moved to a private storage location by the owners on June 16, 2020, although the base of the monument remains.
Each May, White's Ferry hosts an event honoring wounded soldiers recovering at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Escorted to the area by a large motorcycle honor guard, the soldiers enjoy a day of music, food, fishing, and rides on the ferry. The event is sponsored by the town of Poolesville, Maryland, and receives support from many groups and individuals within the community.
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