George Washington traveled through this region on foot, horseback, and by boat as he pursued westward expansion by connecting the Atlantic Seaboard to the frontier West. His efforts to reengineer, dam, channelize, and straighten the Potomac River influenced industrialization in the 1800s and beyond, but the river resisted. Today wild and urban landscapes intermingle along the Potomac, where huge oaks, sycamores, and tulip poplars line the river. The Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail network links the region's history, culture, and ecology through hiking and water routes in Fairfax and Loudoun counties that are part of a larger network crossing the District of Columbia, Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. Along the Potomac River and Goose Creek, water trails follow calmer shoreline waters and pass wildlife such as great blue herons, kingfishers, wood ducks, and river otters, as well as historic features including Goose Creek Canal and George Washington's Patowmack Canal. Hiking trail segments wind through a 50-mile corridor of private and public lands in northern Fairfax and eastern Loudoun counties, where the rolling Piedmont at the river's edge and a rich floodplain forest reveal spring wildflowers and grist mill ruins.