Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail ⓘ

An anchor in the ever-changing context of the Potomac is George Washington's vision of the river as "the great avenue into the Western Country." The Potomac provided the central hub in the life of our Nation's first president. He was born and died on its banks, he surveyed much land within the basin, and his calling as a military leader came on the river and in defense of the Potomac Country for the British Crown. Washington used the river as a highway from the eastern settlements to the wilder west, and it provided food, income, and power for many. Washington himself owned about 12,000 acres of land in scattered locations. The theme of an east-west corridor links the history, transportation and technology of the Potomac River corridor. Prior to the European invasion, land transportation in the Potomac region was largely by trail, usually the improved trace of a game trail. Large mammals, especially bison and elk during historic times, picked routes that used the least energy, and, over the years, the passage of animals engraved trails in the landscape. People followed these trails, and the resulting paths became the established routes of travel. The Potomac represented more than an avenue west--it also represented resources and waterpower. The river provided a rich fisheries resource, remarked upon by Captain Henry Fleet in 1631. Washington himself harvested the river to feed his establishment fish, both fresh and salt, to sell and to fertilize his fields. European colonists recognized the vast potential of waterpower by adopting water laws, including mill seat rights, as some of their first legislation. Wind and tidal mills predominated during this period, but as settlement expanded into the Piedmont mill-seats became an important aspect of land grants. Today, the Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail follows the route of the Potomac River, connecting visitors to historic sites and offering opportunities to connect to the history, culture, and recreational opportunities along its corridor.

The Potomac Heritage Trail is an oasis for visitors and for historians and researchers because of its well protected cultural heritage and history. With an archeological record going back millennia and hundreds of years of written history, the story of the Potomac Heritage Trail is diverse, complex, and continually being reframed. Research in archives, on the landscape, through oral histories, and through archeology provides information about how to best care for the park and informs how we tell the stories of our park. Read more in the articles below by and about researchers studying history and culture along the Potomac Heritage Trail.

Identifiers : These birds are the largest of the North American herons with grayish-blue bodies and a white face and crown with a black band dividing them. Look for them in flight with wings spread, neck tucked in, and legs trailing behind.

Habitat : Great blue herons inhabit various wetland habitats such as marshes, beaches, riversides, ponds, marches, etc.

Behavior : When hunting, herons will wade slowly and stand like a statue, suddenly coming to life when they thrust their necks to stab prey with their beak. During breeding seasons they will form heronries, which are colonies of herons that build their nests high off the ground.

Identifiers : This bird of prey is brown above and pale white below with a streaked belly and darker bars on the underside of the wings. The tails of these hawks appear pale from below and reddish above.

Habitat : As the most widespread hawk in North America, they are seen in a variety of habitats, most commonly on roadsides poles or soaring over fields and woods.

Behavior : Red-tailed hawks can soar for long periods of time but use a sit-and-wait style of hunting from high perches. Their “keeeeer” call is often mistaken as the call of the bald eagle.

Identifiers : Males have an iridescent green head, chestnut breast, while females have grayish-brown plumage with white eye markings. Both have crests down the back of their heads.

Habitat : Wood ducks inhabit a variety of wooded wetlands environments, favoring shallow inland lakes, ponds, and slow-moving rivers.

The Trail network provides access to many unique ecosystems within five distinct geographic regions.

The following is adapted from a 1997 "white paper" by Philip W. Ogilvie, Ph.D., articulating the significance of the corridor in our Nation's evolution and the associated ecological and economic changes.

The Potomac Basin has been shaped and reshaped throughout time as each resident human society over the last 14,000 years has left its mark. A slow deterioration, due mostly to anthropogenic forces, has recently turned into a rapid destruction of habitat coupled with industrialization and overpopulation. The tides are slowly turning in the other direction, with the past 50 years witnessing a slow repair of natural ecosystems. For example, the recent efforts to bring back American shad, a species once economically important, have been successful, but only to a point. The numbers of shad are growing but it is still unlawful to catch and keep shad.

In 1886, William Morris Davis of the Pennsylvania Geological Survey published a paper called "Rivers and Valleys of Pennsylvania"; with a few corrections, this paper is still applicable today and describes four major physical factors that shape rivers: 1) the formation of wind and water gaps by erosion; 2) headwater migration of divides; 3) stream piracy; and 4) adjustments to stream structure.

Scientists think that many millions of years ago a super continent, called Pangea, began to break apart to form the modern continents. The topographic changes occurring after the continental split have resulted in the present Chesapeake Bay and Potomac River basin:

The Potomac River corridor can be divided into six physiographic sections: the sediment-covered Coastal Plain, divided from the Piedmont by the fall line; the ancient crystalline rock of the Blue Ridge; the Great Valley, from the Shenandoah Valley south of the River to the Cumberland Valley north of the River; the rippled Ridge and Valley portion of the Appalachian Highlands; and the eastern front of the Allegheny Plateau.

Traveling through these regions is a vast window into geology and geomorphology--the study of the earth's physical makeup and the earth's physical changes, respectively. And this opportunity is a primary reason that Congress authorized the Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail.

Through studying the rocks of the basin and having the opportunity to visit these special ecosystems, we travel back in time. Fossils and pollen allow us to reconstruct the changes in environment over time until the archaeological record begins in the late Pleistocene era. We still have remnants of ice age ecosystems in the basin today. These are best described as "muskegs," an Algonquian word meaning "trembling earth." Locally they are called quaking bogs, glades, swamps, marshes and bogs. Muskegs are at high enough altitudes (ca. 1,000 meters) for frost to occur in summer, acting as a natural "refrigerator." Cranesville Swamp in Garrett County, Maryland, is a good example. Many arctic plants and animals have their southernmost distribution in these muskegs During the most recent inter-glacial period, about 100,000 years ago, there were great bald cypress swamps along the Potomac, and the stumps still show up in excavations in Washington, D.C. While cypress swamps are rare in the Potomac basin, a cypress marsh may be reached by canoe in Pohick Bay Regional Park in Fairfax County, Virginia. As the continental ice sheet withdrew, a new ecosystem of plants and animals came into play. This complex included caribou and muskoxen as well as several now extinct large ice age mammals. There were few populations of humans at that time in the area, and except for hunting larger mammals, humans probably had little effect on the ecosystem. Over time the area grew into a deciduous forest like what we see today, but the trees grew in greatly different proportions to each other.

The Potomac Heritage Trail is a natural oasis for visitors and for scientific researchers because of its protected natural landscape. The research done here provides the accurate and current natural resource information we need to provide to best care for the park. Scientists look at what key resources are present in the park, if they are stable or changing, how ecosystems are changing over time, and how much change is normal.

Like a physician monitoring a patient's heartbeat and blood pressure, National Park Service ecologists with the National Capital Region Inventory & Monitoring Network collect long-term data on forest vegetation, bird and amphibian communities, water quality, and other key resources in national parks that make up the Potomac Heritage Trail, analyze the monitoring results, and share them. Read more in the articles below about researchers studying nature at Potomac Heritage Trail and nearby national parks.

Short hikes & multi-day backpacking trips: Explore the diversity of the Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail corridor on foot Hiking opportunities are extensive throughout the Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail network and one of the best ways to experience the beauty, history and culture of the Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail corridor. Just as early Americans saw the corridor as a passage between the Chesapeake Bay and lands beyond the Alleghenies, we use some of the same routes today as pathways to discovery.

Hiking opportunities are extensive throughout the Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail network and one of the best ways to experience the beauty, history and culture of the Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail corridor. Just as early Americans saw the corridor as a passage between the Chesapeake Bay and lands beyond the Alleghenies, we use some of the same routes today as pathways to discovery. If you are planning a hiking trip along the Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail, please use the resources below for specific trailhead, fee, and route information. Visit our Exploring the Potomac Heritage Trail by Region page for additional activities along the Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail.

Bicycling throughout the PHT corridor provides an exceptional experience of various kinds of landscapes and communities.

Discover family-friendly activities offered along the PHT network and opportunities to earn Junior Ranger badges and Passport Stamps.

Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail c/o Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park 142 W. Potomac St. Williamsport, MD 21795

301-739-4200 This phone number will connect you to the C&O Canal National Historical Park's mainline.