Tide Lock

At Tide Lock, the Potomac River and nearby Rock Creek meet. Years ago, canal boats locked into Rock Creek from the C&O Canal about a half-mile upstream and then passed through Tide Lock into the busy Potomac waterfront, where coal, building stones, and other cargo were unloaded at wharves or transferred to schooners and steamships. A skirting canal along the river bank led to the Washington City Canal, which followed what is now Constitution Avenue to wharves on the Anacostia River. Though few signs remain of that heyday, the Georgetown riverfront once rang with the shouts of sailors, canallers, longshoremen, and the impatient braying of canal mules tethered near the present-day Thompson’s boat house.

Washington, District of Columbia · United States