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2 unusual facts about Attempts to make the Potomac River navigable


Attempts to make the Potomac River navigable

There was a large conflict with Virginia Governor Henry Lee (father of Robert E. Lee), who purchased 500 acres of land around Great Falls (he named it “Matildaville” after his wife) to build a warehouse for goods being transported down the Potomac (predicting the route would quickly become profitable after the project’s completion).

The late realization of these unanticipated problems caused the company to give up its earlier goal to link the Potomac and the Ohio Valley, and the new goal was to improve other rivers in the watershed such as the Shenandoah, the Monocacy, and the Antietam.



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