The Potomac Company

Washington continued professional as a surveyor until 1752 when he recieved a military appointment as adjutant for southern Virginia.

As a young and ambitious military officer, he experienced the wilderness on a number of occasions. In late 1753, twenty-one-year-old Major Washington set off on a 2 ½-month journey on rough trails and through deep snows into the Ohio country to warn the French against encroachment into the Virginia backcountry.

Still in his twenties, he served as an aide to General Edward Braddock in the French and Indian War and trekked the forests, built roads, and led troops through the western Pennsylvania wilderness.

During this time, Washington perfected his skills as a surveyor and achieved notoriety on the battlefield. He also developed an extraordinary awareness of the vast resources of the American interior, the role of the Potomac and other waterways as important avenues to the West, the potential for personal wealth there, and the attraction of the hinterlands to a multitude of diverse settlers.

These experiences greatly influenced the young master of Mount Vernon. Aside From expanding his estate and changing his agricultural focus from tobacco to wheat, nothing occupied his time more intensely during the years prior to the American Revolution than acquiring and managing vast land holdings in the Ohio Valley.

By 1770, Washington had amassed more than 20,000 of the approximately 60,000 acres he would eventually own in frontier areas by taking advantage of a 1754 proclamation that awarded land to officers who had served in the French and Indian War.

He traveled to the Ohio country in the fall of 1770 to inspect and choose specific parcels for himself and other officers, and he renewed his acquaintance with the rich interior.

At that time Washington became actively involved in efforts to establish an organization, called the Potomac Company, that would develop links between the Potomac, James, and Ohio Rivers by networks of roads, canals, and locks in order to expedite the transportation of produce and people between the East and the West. He commented on the "immense advantages" of "making the Potomac the Channel of Commerce between Great Britain and that immense Tract of Country which is unfolding to our view ...."

Washington and the directors made several trips to inspect the sites and to consult about the best methods of improving the navigation of the Potomac, traversing the rapids in canoes and walking both shores in order to select suitable channels and proper depths. Ultimately, the Company cleared channels and built canals and locks to negotiate the rapids between Georgetown, in the District of Columbia, and the area above Harpers Ferry.

The 1785 charter provided "liberal wages" for "any Number not exceeding one hundred good Hands with provisions and a reasonable Quantity of Spirits; that a further Encouragement will be given to such as are dextrous [sic] in boring and blowing Rocks in which Service a proportion of the Men will be employed .... " Rations for the workers included ~1 lb. Salt pork or 1 ¼ lb. Salt Beef or 1 ~ lb. fresh Beef or Mutton-- 1 ½ ibs. Flour or Bread and 3 Jills Rum a day."

The one hundred plus hands were divided into crews and put to work at various points along the river: Shenandoah Falls, Seneca Falls, Little Falls, House Falls, and Great Falls. During the life of the company, workers included a mixture of hired hands, indentured servants, and slaves.

The crew led a difficult life, being required to remove a certain amount of debris and rock before their rations of "spirits" were distributed. The work was dangerous, and since many of the men were inexperienced in the use of explosives several were injured and some died.

A July 1786 report noted: "One Run off the other Blown up." Often their rations and acquisition of basic equipment, such as boats, were delayed because contracts were not fulfilled. Sometimes these contractors were neighboring settlers who resented the disturbances of the unruly crews.

Whether serving as president of the Constitutional Convention or as the newly elected president of the United States, Washington's enthusiasm for the Potomac Canal never wavered. Visitors to Mount Vernon commented on his long discussions on the subject; Robert Hunter, a visitor to the estate in 1785 noted that, "The General sent the bottle about pretty freely after dinner and gave success to the navigation of the Potomac for his toast, which he has very much [at] heart, and when finished will, I suppose be the first river in the world." In the last week of his life Washington "rejoice[d] that the means are likely to be obtained which will accomplish this desirable object."

The Potomac Company increased the trade between east and west, with boats carrying such diverse items as barrels of flour, pig iron, pork, beef, tobacco, ginseng, linseed off, and even cast iron stoves.

The canal and lock systems of the Potomac Company were taken over in 1828 by the Chesapeake and Ohio Company, and the railroads superceded the canals by the middle of the 19th century.

However, it was Washington's vision for a strong Union that shaped the development of inland navigation, opened up the rich interior, and helped "bind those people to us by a chain which never can be broken."