Great Falls Park

Great Falls and Mather Gorge

Welcome to Great Falls, Virginia. Here, near the Nation’s Capital, the Potomac River builds up speed and force as it falls over a series of steep, jagged rocks and flows through a narrow gorge. This dramatic scene makes the falls and Mather Gorge, named for the first National Park Service director, Stephen T. Mather, a popular site with local residents and with tourists from around the world. The river here was a trading place for American Indians and early colonists, and it is still a gathering place. History buffs and geology enthusiasts find plenty to interest them – in the remnants of George Washington’s canal and in the natural structure of the gorge. People come here to take a walk, picnic with family and friends, and enjoy the view.

George Washington

The Patowmack Company was organized in 1784 to construct a series of five canals to make the river navigable. George Washington presided over the effort, a dream of his since his youth when he surveyed the river and its tributaries. Washington was convinced that such canals would stimulate trade between the East and Ohio Valley and bind the country together in a framework of trade and mutual interest. Construction began on this canal system (one of America’s first) in 1785 and was completed in 1802. The canals at Little Falls above Georgetown and at Great Falls required locks, a challenge for the company’s engineers. Canals that skirted unnavigable features, such as falls and rapids, were dug at Seneca Falls and Harpers Ferry; elsewhere the company dredged the existing riverbed.

Canal System

During the 26 years that the canal system was in operation, flour, corn, whiskey, furs, tobacco, iron ore, and timber were poled down the river on flatboats from as far away as Cumberland, Maryland, a market center in the Allegheny Mountains. The flatboats were about 75 feet long, five feet wide, and pointed at both ends. It took about three days to travel the 190-plus miles from Cumberland to Georgetown. Most boatmen dismantled their boats, sold them for lumber, then walked back home.

Lighthorse Harry

In 1790 the town of Matildaville was sponsored by "Lighthorse Harry" Lee, an American Revolutionary War hero and friend of Washington. The town, near Great Falls, flourished for nearly 30 years but declined in the 1820s. In 1828 the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company bought the old Patowmack Canal and its rights and began construction of an ambitious canal system – a water highway – that would link Washington, D.C. and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. By 1850 labor disputes, money problems, and rivalry with the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad halted the canal at Cumberland, Maryland. The C&O Canal operated until 1924 but eventually lost out to railroads and newer modes of transportation, which could haul larger loads much faster than the canal boats.

Today, footpaths lead through the quiet woods to remnants of Matildaville and the Patowmack Canal.