The Lower Brandywine (the main stem) is 20.4 miles (32.8 km) long[3] and is a designated Pennsylvania Scenic River with several tributary streams.

The mouth of the creek on the Christina River in present-day Wilmington, Delaware, is the site of the New Sweden colony, where colonists first landed on March 29, 1638.

Water-powered gristmills in Brandywine Village, near the creek mouth, and the nearby DuPont gunpowder mill were important in developing American industry before the introduction of steam power.

The combined drainage of the East Branch and West Branch, downstream of the confluence, is defined as Brandywine Creek and continues to flow southeast through Chester County, past Chadds Ford,[6] Delaware County, Pennsylvania then enters the state of Delaware about 5 miles (8 km) north of Wilmington.

[11] In Pennsylvania, Chadds Ford, Elam,[dubious – discuss] Downingtown, Unionville, and parts of West Chester, are all in the Brandywine Valley, as well as the Delaware towns of Centreville, Greenville, Montchanin, Hockessin, and Yorklyn.

The Lenape called the creek Wauwaset, Wawasiungh, or Wawassan, and other Native American names for it included Suspecough and Trancocopanican.

[15] They tended to settle along the Delaware River rather than move inland along the Brandywine and are credited with introducing the log cabin into America.

It has been asserted that in 1655, a Dutch vessel carrying brandy, wintered in the stream and was sunk due to ice accumulation.

[17][18] Thomas Holme's 1687 map of Pennsylvania gives the name as simply Brandy Wine and shows it flowing into Christian Creek and then the Delaware River.

[21] Hannah Freeman (1730–1802), believed to be the last Lenape to have lived in Chester County, is buried in Embreeville, near the forks of the creek.

The Brandywine Battlefield Park covers only 50 acres (200,000 m2), but during the battle British troops marched about 6 miles (9.7 km) north, fording the creek above the forks, to outflank Washington's forces.

Before the battle, General Anthony Wayne had his headquarters in Brandywine Village, across the creek from Wilmington, and Continental troops camped nearby, near Lovering Avenue.

[citation needed] Oliver Evans in the 1780s helped local mills increase their efficiency, ushering in the Industrial Revolution.

[37] In 1795, Jacob Broom built the first cotton mill on the Brandywine, a few miles north of the village, but it burned down two years later.

[36] In 1802, Broom sold the site, complete with a working dam and millrace, to Eleuthère Irénée du Pont, who paid $6,740 for the 95 acres (380,000 m2).

[39] By 1815, several toll roads connected the village with Pennsylvania's grain-growing regions, including the Lancaster, Kennett and Concord Pikes.

[citation needed] A mill race once used to provide water power is still in working condition in Brandywine Park, designed in the 1890s by Frederick Law Olmsted, near downtown Wilmington.

[44] Several dams block passage to American shad (Alosa sapidissima) spawning runs which cannot access the Pennsylvania reaches of the river.

The plan to remove all eight dams is known as "Brandywine Shad 2020" and has been led by Professor Jerry Kauffman of the University of Delaware Water Resources Center.