A report on Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and Key Bridge (Washington, D.C.)

The Key Bridge Marriott in Rosslyn, the company's oldest hotel, and a minor location in the Watergate scandal (2009)

Canal boats waiting to be unloaded in Georgetown.

Southern terminus of Key Bridge and remaining pier and abutment of Aqueduct Bridge (2005)

Low-angle bird's-eye view of central Washington toward the west and northwest with The Capitol in foreground. The Canal is visible running along the mall.

View of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, US 29, over the Potomac River from Georgetown

C&O Canal in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C.

Boat construction yard in Cumberland, MD

Map of Terminus in Cumberland in the mid 1890s. Yellow dots indicate modern highways as well as current (2013) location of Canal basin.

Register of waybills in the Cumberland Office, in 1858. Each canal boat had to have a waybill, even if empty, for passage through the canal. Fines were levied for lack of a waybill.

Boats docked beside the Key Bridge in Georgetown

5 and 10 dollar notes, from C&O Canal company

Great Falls feeder culvert (no longer used) indicated by yellow arrow(14.08 mi), and Lock 18 (R).

An informal overflow. The towpath dips, allowing water to flow over it. Note the boards in the background for people to walk on.

Culvert #30 lets Muddy Branch under the canal

A steamboat on the C&O Canal. Note the steering wheel and the smokestack on this boat

Children tethered to canal boat. This photo was probably taken in one of the Cumberland basins.

Model interior of a C&O Canal freight boat

Recent view of the 9 mile level (between 33 and 34 miles) where the ghosts were reported to haunt.

Monocacy aqueduct in 2011, where the ghost of a robber could allegedly be seen on moonless nights

The first Aqueduct Bridge was built in 1830 to carry the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal across the Potomac to connect with the Alexandria Canal on the Virginia shore.

- Key Bridge (Washington, D.C.)

In 1843, the Potomac Aqueduct Bridge was built near the present-day Francis Scott Key Bridge to connect the canal to the Alexandria Canal, which led to Alexandria, Virginia.

- Chesapeake and Ohio Canal

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First Aqueduct Bridge between 1860 and 1865

Aqueduct Bridge (Potomac River)

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Bridge between Georgetown, Washington, D.C., and Rosslyn, Virginia.

First Aqueduct Bridge after addition of superstructure and roadway. Note the Howe trusses and arches added for strength.

View of the Potomac Aqueduct Bridge from Georgetown into Rosslyn, Virginia

Aqueduct Bridge from Georgetown, ca. 1900

Second Aqueduct Bridge, some time between 1924 and 1933.

Side view of second Aqueduct Bridge abutment, with Water Street and Whitehurst Freeway visible through the arch.

Photograph of first bridge with new superstructure

Close-up photo of first bridge with new superstructure

Downstream view (towards Roosevelt Island) of second bridge

View of second bridge from Virginia towards Georgetown

Side view of second bridge abutment, before enlargement to allow the Georgetown Branch to pass beneath

Aqueduct Bridge's Georgetown abutment and piers in Potomac river upstream of Key Bridge (c. 1940)

Second bridge's Georgetown abutment and Potomac Boat Club (1967)

Aqueduct Bridge pier, from Virginia shore upstream of Key Bridge (1967)

Pier and remnant of Virginia abutment of Aqueduct Bridge upstream of Key Bridge (1967)

Aerial view of Key Bridge and George Washington Memorial Parkway, with pier of Aqueduct Bridge visible in the foreground and remnant of Aqueduct Bridge abutment visible on the Virginia shoreline (c. 1990)

Pier and remnant of Virginia abutment of the Aqueduct Bridge upstream of Key Bridge (2005)

Georgetown abutment and pier of Aqueduct Bridge, seen from the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal towpath (2013)

Aqueduct Bridge remnants seen from below (2022)

It was built to transport cargo-carrying boats on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal in Georgetown across the Potomac River to the Alexandria Canal.

The bridge was closed in 1923 after the construction of the nearby Key Bridge.

Map of Washington, D.C., with Georgetown highlighted in maroon.

Georgetown (Washington, D.C.)

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Historic neighborhood and commercial and entertainment district located in Northwest Washington, D.C., situated along the Potomac River.

Oak Hill Cemetery Chapel, designed by James Renwick Jr. in 1850, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Bank on the corner of M Street & Wisconsin Avenue

The Old Stone House, built 1765, is the oldest house in Washington, D.C.

Georgetown around 1862. Overview of the C&O Canal, Aqueduct Bridge at right, and unfinished Capitol dome in the distant background.

Sailing vessels docked at the Georgetown waterfront, c. 1865

Children playing on sidewalk in Georgetown during the Great Depression, Carl Mydans, 1935

The Washington Harbour complex located on the Potomac River. Healy Hall is visible in the background.

Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School

Francis Scott Key Bridge across the Potomac River, connecting Georgetown to Rosslyn, Virginia

The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal passes through Georgetown.

Enlargeable diagram of Washington area trolley lines:
Orange = Washington, Arlington & Mount Vernon Electric Railway.
Blue = Washington, Arlington & Falls Church Railway (WA&FC).
Yellow = Nauck (Fort Myer) line of WA&FC.
Light green = W&OD Bluemont Division.
Dark green = W&OD Great Falls Division.

Construction of the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal began in July 1828, to link Georgetown to Harper's Ferry, Virginia (West Virginia after 1863).

In 1949, the city constructed the Whitehurst Freeway, an elevated highway above K Street, to allow motorists entering the District over the Key Bridge to bypass Georgetown entirely on their way downtown.

Potomac River

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The Potomac River drains the Mid-Atlantic United States, flowing from the Potomac Highlands into Chesapeake Bay.

The Potomac River in Washington, D.C., with Arlington Memorial Bridge in the foreground and Rosslyn, Arlington, Virginia in the background

Map showing the five geological provinces through which the Potomac River flows

The North Branch between Cumberland, Maryland, and Ridgeley, West Virginia, in 2007

Canoers at Hanging Rocks on the South Branch in the 1890s

Confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah at Harpers Ferry

View southwest across the tidal Potomac River from the south end of Cobb Island Road on Cobb Island, Charles County, Maryland

Tundra swans were the predominant species of swan on the Potomac River when the Algonquian tribes dwelled along its shores, and continue to be the most populous variety today.

View of the Potomac River from George Washington's birthplace in Westmoreland County, Virginia

Sunset over the Potomac near Mount Vernon

Map of the Potomac River and its environs circa 1862 by Robert Knox Sneden.

The Potomac River surges over the deck of Chain Bridge during the historic 1936 flood. The bridge was so severely damaged by the raging water, and the debris it carried, that its superstructure had to be re-built; the new bridge was opened to traffic in 1939. (This photograph was taken from a vantage point on Glebe Road in Arlington County, Virginia. The houses on the bluffs in the background are located on the Potomac Palisades of Washington, DC.)

Eutrophication in the Potomac River is evident from this bright green water in Washington, D.C., caused by a dense bloom of cyanobacteria, April 2012

This chart displays the Annual Mean Discharge of the Potomac River measured at Little Falls, Maryland for Water Years 1931–2017 (in cubic feet per second). Source of data: USGS

After an absence lasting many decades, the American Shad has recently returned to the Potomac.

Several hundred bottle-nosed dolphins live six months of the year (from mid-April through mid-October) in the Potomac. Depicted here, a mother with her young.

Eastern Box Turtles are frequently spotted along the towpath of the C&O Canal.

The South Branch near South Branch Depot, West Virginia

Confluence of the Cacapon River (barely visible) with the Potomac

Oblique air photo, facing southwest, of the Potomac River flowing through water gaps in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Virginia on the left, Maryland on the right, West Virginia in upper right, including Harpers Ferry (partially obscured by Maryland Heights of Elk Ridge Mountain) at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers.

The Great Falls of the Potomac, viewed from the Virginia bank of the river (Engraving based on an aquatint drawn by George Jacob Beck in 1802)

View of the Potomac River, Analostan Island, Georgetown, and, in the distance, buildings of the nascent City of Washington. (Engraving based on an 1801 watercolor by George Jacob Beck)

Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C., viewed from across the Tidal Basin of the Potomac

The Pentagon, looking northeast with the Potomac in the distance

East Branch of the Potomac (now called the Anacostia River) near its confluence with the mainstem Potomac in Washington. (Watercolor drawn in 1839 by Augustus Kollner)

Potomac River seen while landing at Reagan National Airport

View northeast down the North Branch Potomac River from the Gorman-Gormania Bridge (U.S. Route 50) between Gormania, Grant County, West Virginia and Gorman, Garrett County, Maryland

The North Branch Potomac River near Piedmont, WV

The South Branch Potomac River near South Branch Depot, WV

The South Branch of the Potomac River at Millesons Mill, WV

Potomac River Watershed in West Virginia, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Maryland

The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal operated along the banks of the Potomac in Maryland from 1831 to 1924 and also connected Cumberland to Washington, D.C. This allowed freight to be transported around the rapids known as the Great Falls of the Potomac River, as well as many other, smaller rapids.

a pod of 14 adults and young was followed up the river by men in boats as high as the Aqueduct Bridge (approximately the same location occupied by Key Bridge today).

Alexandria Canal Center with reconstructed Tidal Basin and Tidal Lock

Alexandria Canal (Virginia)

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Canal in the United States that connected the city of Alexandria to Georgetown in the District of Columbia.

1878 map of Alexandria County, Virginia (now Arlington County, Virginia), showing the route of the Alexandria Canal (identified as the "Chesapeake and Ohio Canal") southwest of the Potomac River

In 1830, merchants from Alexandria (which at the time was within the jurisdiction of the federal District of Columbia) proposed linking their city to Georgetown to capitalize on the new Chesapeake and Ohio Canal (C&O Canal).

After the Key Bridge was completed in 1923, the old superstructure of the Aqueduct Bridge was removed.