In the uncertain period after the Revolutionary War, Washington believed that better transportation and trade would draw lands west of the Allegheny Mountains into the United States and "bind those people to us by a chain which never can be broken."

In 1784, Washington convinced the states' assemblies to establish a company to improve the Potomac between its headwaters near Cumberland, Maryland, and tidewater at Georgetown.

Delegates from Virginia and Maryland, meeting at Washington's home in 1785, drew up the Mount Vernon Compact, providing for free trade on the river.

Virginia and Maryland legislators ratified the compact and then invited all 13 states to send delegates to a convention in Annapolis in 1786 "to consider how far a uniform system in their commercial regulations may be necessary to their common interest."

To make the river navigable by even shallow draft boats, the Patowmack Company had to dredge portions of the riverbed and skirt five areas of falls.

The original locks, near today's Fletcher's Boat House, were made of wood, and the canal was finished in 1795.

The remains of the stone locks were destroyed when the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) built its Georgetown Branch line c. 1910.

By far the most demanding task was building a canal with locks to bypass the Great Falls of the Potomac River.

Swift currents, solid rock, and constant financial and labor problems hindered progress on the Patowmack Canal at Great Falls.

Crews consisted of unskilled laborers, skilled indentured servants, and slaves rented from nearby plantations.

With one of the earliest uses in this country of black-powder blasting, workers forced a channel through the rock cliffs for the final three locks.

[9] Its five locks raised or lowered boats to skirt around Great Falls, and were constructed of red sandstone from the Seneca Quarry across the river in Maryland.

[11] An entire town grew up around the construction site to serve as headquarters for the Patowmack Company and home for the workers.

The town was named Matildaville by its founder, the Revolutionary War hero Light Horse Harry Lee.

Boaters stopped here to wait their turn through the locks, to change cargo, or to enjoy an evening in town before continuing their journey.

Vessels varied from crudely constructed rafts to the long narrow "sharper," a keelboat that could carry up to 20 tons of cargo.

[16] Wrecks and loss of cargo were probably frequent, since it is written that the people of Cooney (a hamlet near Little Falls) was well supplied with coal, flour, meat (etc.)

[17] The Erie Canal opened in 1825, and immediately became a rival, controlling a connection between the Great Lakes and the Eastern Seaboard.

The new company abandoned the Patowmack Canal (except for the section at Little Falls) in 1830 for an even more ambitious undertaking: a man-made waterway stretching from Georgetown to Pittsburgh.

Although the Patowmack Company was a financial failure, its builders pioneered lock engineering and stimulated a wave of canal construction important to the country's development.

But in the long run Washington's vision of a strong nation linked by a direct, long-distance trade network came true.

Sporting activities such as rock climbing and kayaking at Great Falls Park should be conducted only by experienced persons familiar with the dangers and safety protocols involved therein.

The Great Falls section of the canal, along with the archaeological remains of Matildaville and other nearby canal-related sites, were designated a National Historic Landmark in 1982, as one of the nation's earliest efforts at large-scale civil engineering, reflective of the visions of two of its Founding Fathers, George Washington and James Madison.