Transportation
The Patowmack Canal, built to skirt the seventy-six-foot drop of the Great Falls of the Potomac, was the most demanding and complex of the five canals built by the Patowmack Company. Founded by George Washington on May 17, 1785, the company sought to improve the Potomac River for access and trade with the western frontier. The agreement developed between Maryland and Virginia to share the river for their common purpose led to further meetings in Annapolis in 1786 and Philadelphia in 1787 and to the drafting of the U.S. Constitution.
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Great Falls, Virginia · United States
