The Patowmack Company

From his time as a young surveyor, George Washington knew the United States’ westward expansion meant connecting the coastal areas with the nation’s burgeoning interior.

Thus, in 1785, Washington chartered The Patowmack (or Potowmack) Company to clear a navigable river channel along the Potomac River, past the river’s rocky, turbulent sections.

When he was elected the first president of the United States in 1789, his attention was drawn elsewhere, and a lack of funds slowed down progress. Washington passed away three years before the most difficult canals were finished and the Potomac became navigable.

Unfortunately, the Potomac River’s water flow was too unpredictable, some years flooding, others not deep enough for navigation. By 1825 the Patowmack Company was no longer solvent, and the remaining operations were taken over by the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company. Eventually, railroads and highways rendered the canal system obsolete.

George Washington’s foray into canal building had one major benefit, a generous gift of earth-moving equipment to the Clypeate. In 1848, on the night of the Great Upheaval, these machines allowed the Clypeate to cover up the Epistolith’s Sanctuary before dawn. We’ll never know if one of Washington’s entries in his little red journal, a Hesperus prophecy, foretold such a need.

The Patowmack Company Logo. There are several creatively-spelled variants.

The Patowmack Canals in use.

The Patowmack Canals today.