Editing Potomac River (section)

==History==
===Natural history===
The river itself is at least 3.5 million years old,<ref name="NPS-PH" /> likely extending back ten to twenty million years before the present when the Atlantic Ocean lowered and exposed coastal sediments along the fall line. This included the area at Great Falls, which eroded into its present form during recent glaciation periods.<ref name=USGS>{{cite web |title=The River and the Rocks: The Geologic Story of Great Falls and the Potomac River Gorge |last=Reed |first=John Calvin |url=https://pubs.usgs.gov/bul/1471/report.pdf |website=pubs.usgs.gov |publisher=USGS |access-date=24 March 2019 |archive-date=October 1, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201001233035/https://pubs.usgs.gov/bul/1471/report.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref>

The [[stream gradient]] of the entire river is 0.14%, a drop of 930 m over 652&nbsp;km.

===Human history===
[[File:Detail of 1608 Smith Map showing the Patawomeck River.jpg|thumb|left|Captain John Smith's 1608 map]]
"Potomac" is a European spelling of ''[[Patawomeck]]'', the [[Algonquian languages|Algonquian]] name of a Native American village on its southern bank.<ref name="Bright2004">{{cite book |last=Bright |first=William |author-link=William Bright |title=Native American Placenames of the United States |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5XfxzCm1qa4C&pg=PA396 |year=2004 |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |isbn=978-0-8061-3598-4 |page=396 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160511135133/https://books.google.com/books?id=5XfxzCm1qa4C&pg=PA396 |archive-date=May 11, 2016}}</ref> Native Americans had different names for different parts of the river, calling the river above [[Great Falls (Potomac River)|Great Falls]] ''Cohongarooton'', meaning "honking geese"<ref>''Legends of Loudoun: An account of the history and homes of a border county of Virginia's Northern Neck'', Harrison Williams, p. 26.</ref><ref name="Achenbach2004">{{cite book |last=Achenbach |first=Joel |title=The Grand Idea: George Washington's Potomac and the Race to the West |url=https://archive.org/details/grandideageorgew00ache |url-access=registration |year=2004 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-0-684-84857-0 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/grandideageorgew00ache/page/35 35]–36}}</ref> and "Patawomke" below the Falls, meaning "river of swans".<ref>Hagemann, James A. (1988). The Heritage of Virginia. The Donning Company, 2nd edition, 297 p. {{ISBN|0-89865-255-3}}.</ref> In 1608, Captain John Smith explored the river now known as the Potomac and made drawings of his observations which were later compiled into a map and published in London in 1612. This detail from that map shows his rendition of the river that the local tribes had told him was called the "Patawomeck". The spelling of the name has taken many forms over the years from "[[Patawomeck]]" (as on [[John Smith (explorer)|Captain John Smith]]'s map) to "Patomake", "Patowmack", and numerous other variations in the 18th century and now "Potomac".<ref name="Achenbach2004"/> The river's name was officially decided upon as "Potomac" by the [[Board on Geographic Names]] in 1931.<ref>{{Cite GNIS| 597915 |Potomac River}}</ref>
[[File:Tundra swans (6565983429).jpg|thumb|[[Tundra swan]]s were the predominant species of swan on the Potomac River when the [[Algonquian peoples|Algonquian tribes]] dwelled along its shores, and continue to be the most populous variety today.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://cbmm.org/news/chesapeake-swan-song-exhibition-opens-april-11-at-cbmm/ |title=Chesapeake Swan Song exhibition opens April 11 at CBMM  |date=January 26, 2015 |publisher=Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum |archive-url=https://archive.today/20180228140642/http://cbmm.org/news/chesapeake-swan-song-exhibition-opens-april-11-at-cbmm/ |archive-date=February 28, 2018 |url-status=live |access-date=February 28, 2018 |df=mdy-all}}</ref>]] The similarity of the name to the Ancient Greek word for river, ''potamos'', has been noted for more than two centuries but it appears to be due to chance.<ref name="Jefferson1814">{{cite book |last=Jefferson |first=Thomas |author-link=Thomas Jefferson |title=The Proceedings of the Government of the United States, in Maintaining the Public Right to the Beach of the Missisipi: Adjacent to New-Orleans, Against the Intrusion of Edward Livingston |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Mpc0AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA200 |year=1814 |publisher=Edward J. Coale |pages=200– |quote=I have heard of an etymologist who derived the name of the river Potomac from the Greek Potamos. This derivation is quite as probable as that of beach from beotian; being founded on a much greater similarity of sound, as well as analogy of sense. |access-date=November 15, 2020 |archive-date=December 8, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201208012813/https://books.google.com/books?id=Mpc0AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA200 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="CampbellSherman2014">{{cite book |last1=Campbell |first1=Douglas E. |last2=Sherman |first2=Thomas B. |title=On the Potomac River |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z4URBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA3 |date=25 July 2014 |isbn=978-1-304-69872-8 |pages=3– |publisher=Lulu.com |access-date=November 15, 2020 |archive-date=December 7, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201207194351/https://books.google.com/books?id=Z4URBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA3 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="SorensonRaish1996">{{cite book |last1=Sorenson |first1=John L. |last2=Raish |first2=Martin |title=Pre-Columbian Contact with the Americas Across the Oceans: An Annotated Bibliography |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6o_fAAAAMAAJ |year=1996 |publisher=Research Press |isbn=978-0-934893-23-7 |page=146 |access-date=November 15, 2020 |archive-date=December 8, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201208012837/https://books.google.com/books?id=6o_fAAAAMAAJ |url-status=live}}</ref>

The Potomac River brings together a variety of cultures throughout the watershed from the coal miners of upstream West Virginia to the urban residents of the nation's capital and, along the lower Potomac, the watermen of Virginia's Northern Neck.
[[File:View of the Potomac River - George Washington Birthplace National Monument - Stierch - B.jpg|thumb|View of the Potomac River from [[George Washington Birthplace National Monument|George Washington's birthplace]] in [[Westmoreland County, Virginia]] ]]
[[File:Potomac River Tourist Boat near Lincoln Memorial, Washington DC.jpg|thumb|220px|The Potomac running next to the [[Lincoln Memorial]] and under the [[Arlington Memorial Bridge]]]]

{{multiple image
| direction         = vertical
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| align             = left
| background color  = #EEEEEE
| header_background = 
| header_align      = center
| header            = Civil War Era
| image1            = Conferderate army crossing the Potomac River during the invasion of Maryland.jpg
| image2            = Defense of Washington - 6 views- 2 views of Chain Bridge, Pimmitt Run Bridge (small bridge near Chain Bridge), Block House for defense of Aqueduct Bridge, and Georgetown Ferry LCCN2003670507.jpg
| image3            = PR Chain Bridge Lower Battery ca 1862 LOC.jpg
| caption1          = Confederate troops crossing the fords of the Potomac in early September 1862 for the invasion of Maryland, which would culminate in the [[Battle of Antietam]]. (Print of a wood carving based on a drawing by [[Thomas Nast]]; first published in the September 27, 1862, edition of ''[[Harper's Weekly]]''.)
| caption2          = Union defenses along the Potomac near Washington, DC <br />Top row: Chain Bridge (two views) and Pimmit Run Bridge; Bottom Row: Aqueduct Bridget {two views) and Georgetown Ferry
| caption3          = Union soldiers manning the Lower Battery at the north end of Chain Bridge in 1862
| image4            = Georgetown 1861.jpg
| caption4          = Union soldiers on the Potomac River across from [[Georgetown University]] in 1861
}}

Being situated in an area rich in [[American history]] and American heritage has led to the Potomac being nicknamed "the Nation's River". [[George Washington]], the first [[President of the United States]], was born in, surveyed, and spent most of his life within, the Potomac basin. All of Washington, D.C., the nation's [[capital city]], also lies within the watershed. The First United States Congress by act of July 16, 1790 stated that the nation's capital was to be located on the river.<ref>Bugbee, Mary F. "The Early Planning of Sites for Federal and Local Use in Washington, D. C." ''Records of the Columbia Historical Society, Washington, D.C.'', vol. 51/52, 1951, p. 19. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40067294. Retrieved 19 Feb. 2024.</ref> The 1859 siege of [[Harpers Ferry, West Virginia|Harper's Ferry]] at the river's [[confluence]] with the [[Shenandoah River|Shenandoah]] was a precursor to numerous epic battles of the [[American Civil War]] in and around the Potomac and its tributaries, such as the 1861 [[Battle of Ball's Bluff]] and the 1862 [[Battle of Shepherdstown]].[[File:Map of the Potomac River ~1862 by Sneden LOC.jpg|thumb|right|Map of the Potomac River and its environs {{Circa|1862|lk=no}} by [[Robert Knox Sneden]]]]General [[Robert E. Lee]] crossed the river, thereby invading the North and threatening Washington, D.C., twice in campaigns climaxing in the battles of [[Battle of Antietam|Antietam]] (September 17, 1862) and [[Battle of Gettysburg|Gettysburg]] (July 1–3, 1863). Confederate General [[Jubal Early]] crossed the river in July 1864 on his attempted raid on the nation's capital. The river not only divided the Union from the Confederacy, but also gave name to the Union's largest army, the [[Army of the Potomac]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Peck |first=Garrett |title=The Potomac River: A History and Guide |year=2012 |publisher=The History Press |location=Charleston, SC |isbn=978-1-60949-600-5 |page=18}}</ref>

The [[Patowmack Canal]] was intended by George Washington to connect the [[Tidewater region of Virginia|Tidewater region]] near [[Georgetown, District of Columbia|Georgetown]] with [[Cumberland, Maryland|Cumberland]], Maryland. Started in 1785 on the Virginia side of the river, it was not completed until 1802. Financial troubles led to the closure of the [[canal]] in 1830. The [[Chesapeake and Ohio Canal]] operated along the banks of the Potomac in Maryland from 1831 to 1924 and also connected Cumberland to Washington, D.C.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Chesapeake & Ohio Canal: Pathway to the Nation's Capital |last=Hahn |first=Thomas |year=1984 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |location=Metuchen, NJ |isbn=0-8108-1732-2}}</ref> This allowed freight to be transported around the [[rapids]] known as the [[Great Falls of the Potomac River]], as well as many other, smaller rapids.{{See also|Attempts to make the Potomac River navigable}}
[[File:Coast Guard, multiple partner agencies, responding to plane crash in Potomac River (8847923).jpg|thumb|Remains of [[American Eagle Flight 5342]] in the Potomac River, Washington, D.C.]]
Washington, D.C. began using the Potomac as its principal source of [[drinking water]] with the opening of the [[Washington Aqueduct]] in 1864, using a [[water intake]] constructed at Great Falls.<ref name="Ways">Ways, Harry C. (1996). ''The Washington Aqueduct: 1852-1992.'' (Baltimore, MD: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Baltimore District)</ref><ref>[[#cnote AQU|Washington Aqueduct]]</ref>