George Washington's First Presidency
The Patowmack Canal Sought to Make the Potomac River Navigable
The Patowmack Company
Washington became president of the Patowmack Company in January 1785, the announcement was not official until May. He was to receive the almost token salary of thirty shillings a year as president (Joel Achenbach, The Grand Idea, Simon & Schuster, NY, 2004).
According to the terms of its charter, the purpose of the Patowmack Company was the opening of the Potomac River to the highest point of permanent navigation. The minimum goal was Fort Cumberland in Western, Maryland, at which point a connection would be made with the improved Braddock Road, providing access to the rapidly filling lands tapped by the Ohio and its tributaries. The intention was to deepen the channel and cut canals around the falls to permit the passage of boats capable of carrying fifty barrels of flour in the driest seasons, according to Elizabeth Kytle in Home on the Canal (Cabin Johns, Md.: Seven Locks Press, 1983).
Washington the Canal Builder
While Washington’s support of the project was invaluable, he was a visionary, not an engineer. Notices were placed in newspapers in Baltimore and Philadelphia, but the problem was that no one in America knew how to build a canal.
Building the Patowmack Canal
Meanwhile, with the proper capital, work began on improving the river. Two teams of men were hired to begin work on the river. One team would work between Harpers Ferry and Great Falls and the other team would work on the river above Harpers Ferry. The company offered generous daily rations of: 1 lb salt pork, 1.25 lb salt beef, or 1.5 lb of fresh beef or mutton, 1.5 lb of flour or bread, and 3 gills of rum, according to Achenbach.
This was not enough to attract laborers in sufficient quantities. Not because the rations weren’t liberal. There just weren’t enough hands in the predominantly agricultural area meet the demands of the project. In a bit of desperation, the company directors began to use indentured servants and slaves to meet the labor needs.
Finding an engineer to head the project was just as bad. No suitable candidates were found to lead the project by July and so “local talent of doubtful quality was tried,” according to the Canal Company (Proceedings of the President and Directors of the Potomac Company, Journal A, pg. 4, 7/1/1785). Then Washingon called on the man who seemed not only to have the vision but the ability to accomplish the project…James Rumsey, acc.
Losing a President, Gaining a President
With the creation of the Constitution of the United States, which the Potomack Company, had played a small part in starting, a president was required to head the federal government. Though a presidential election was required, the choice was obvious. The nation chose not only the hero of the Revolution, but a man who had already served as president twice. First as President of the Potomack Company and then as President of the First Continental Congress.
Even after he was unknowingly elected president on February 4, 1789, Washington still pursued his interest in the canal, not knowing word was on its way south from New York that he had been elected. He wrote to Thomas Jefferson about new maps he had received that indicated the portages for between the eastern and western waters might be shorter than expected, according to Achebach.
Continued Work
When Washington became President of the United States, work did not stop on the canal. It continued under the supervision of James Smith who had replaced the incompetent Steward Richardson in 1788.
Washington still attended meetings of the Potowmack Company, which is how he knew in Febrary 1798, the company needed $40,000 to finish the Great Falls locks. He loaned the company $3,498, according to Achenbach.
In the last year of his life, he seemed to regret that he had put aside the work on the Potomac River to serve his country in other ways.
Completion
The skirting canals around Great Falls were finished and the river navigable from Georgetown to Cumberland in 1802. Washingon’s dream had been realized, but he did not live to see it fulfilled. He died in 1799.
The seal of the Patowmack Company
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