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Traveling on the Potomac River:
For more than 10,000 years, the Potomac River has been a key to prosperity for people living within its watershed -- providing water, food, recreational opportunities, and a means of transportation.
Native Americans in birch bark and dugout canoes were the first to travel on the Potomac River and its tributaries. In 1608, John Smith's voyage heralded the European colonization of the Potomac. As the colonies grew, larger boats and sailing vessels plied the Potomac, carrying people and supplies, and stopping at large plantations like Mount Vernon to load tobacco for the journey to the Chesapeake Bay and across the Atlantic to European markets.
In time, the internal combustion engine changed transportation on the Potomac as elsewhere. But a sense of the river's maritime history returns when sailing, canoeing or kayaking its waters today. |