“George Washington’s Dream – The Potomac Company:

Making the Potomac River Navigable” 

Presented by Paul Kreingold

Sunday, February 8, at 2:00 p.m.

St. James United Church of Christ,
10 East Broad Way, Lovettsville VA

Before the C&O Canal, before the B&O Railroad, between 1785 and 1828 over 200,000 tons of freight, mostly grain, was shipped down the Potomac River to Georgetown and out to a hungry world. This was the accomplishment of George Washington’s Potomac Company, established in 1785 to “get the rocks out of the way” and allow for in-river navigation of the Potomac River. 

This lecture will allow you to see the Potomac River system through the eyes of our first President. It will review the technologies used to “open up” the Potomac revealing the successes and failures of the project.

Perhaps most interesting, we will explore the 200-year-old ruins the project left behind for us to admire such as the Great Falls canal.

Our speaker is Paul Kreingold the Conservation Director of the Loudoun County Chapter of the Izaak Walton League, Virginia Master Naturalist and author of Potomac Marble: The History of the Search for the Ideal Stone. For more on Kreingold, see www.PotomacRocks.com.

A video recording of the February 8 presentation will be posted on the Lovettsville Historical Society website.

Admission is free, but donations are welcome to defray expenses of the program and to support the activities of the Lovettsville Historical Society.

For more information, call 540-822-9194.