Seth's Notes on the Potomac River

A visit from Seth always means I will get something interesting in the mail about the area I now live in.  Seth wrote up some notes about the Potomac River (Algonkian Regional Park, a few blocks from my house, is alongside it) during his visit in March, but I got a chance to take some pictures during his most recent visit, which are now part of this post.

“Potomac” is the Europeanized spelling of the name of an Algonkian tribe. The Algonkians called the river Cohonhoroota, meaning “river of geese.” The first Europeans to explore the river were the Spaniards in the 16^th century, followed by the English in the 17^th century.

The Potomac River is 405 miles long, measured from its northern source at Fairfax Stone, West Virginia to its mouth at Chesapeake Bay on the Maryland/Virginia border. During this passage, the river traverses  multiple geological zones. Once it leaves West Virginia, the river divides Virginia and Maryland. Since the Virginia border is the southern edge of the river, the water  in the river is all Maryland during this stage. 

Note - For unknown (?) reasons, there is only a single bridge spanning the river in its final 96 miles before emptying into Chesapeake Bay,  the mile long Woodrow Wilson bridge near the city of Alexandria.  The final bridge crossing the river is the Governor Harry Nice Memorial Bridge which is well below DC at the mouth of Chesapeake Bay. Keeping up the Virginia tradition that the purpose of naming roads is to confuse drivers, the Wilson Bridge is  called the Potomac River Highway Bridge, while the Nice Bridge is called the Potomac River Bridge.  

The river has two sources located in the Allegheny Mountains in West Virginia, a 100 mile long north branch (main stem) at 3000 ft. and a 130 mile long south branch at 4000 ft. These branches descend rapidly through the mountain zone, fed by mountain streams and tributaries until they join up in  a confluence at about mile 100 of the main stem near Green Spring on the West Virginia/Maryland border, here forming a single channel, and from there running along the Maryland/Virginia border for the remainder of the river’s passage.

From the confluence of these branches, the river leaves the Allegheny mountain zone, entering into the Ridge and Valley geologic zone which includes both the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and the Blue Ridge Mountains (and Shenandoah National Park). The river is actually older than the mountains here, as the river channel was cut before the uplift forming the mountains. At about mile 210, the Shenandoah River joins the Potomac, near Harper’s  Ferry, Maryland and the river then flows through the Blue Ridge Mountains.  

In his “Notes on the State of Virginia,” written in 1781, Thomas Jefferson described the view from an overlook of the Shenandoah/Potomac confluence (link here to Amazon for (2) The Potomac River: A History and Guide (The History Press) – Garrett Peck, (3) Falcon Guide to Shenandoah National Park) 

“The passage of the Potomac through the Blue Ridge is perhaps one of the most stupendous scenes in nature. You stand on a very high point of land. On your right comes up the Shenandoah, having ranged along the foot of the mountain a hundred miles to seek a vent. On your left approaches the Potomac, in quest of a passage also. In the moment of their junction they rush together against the mountain, rend it asunder, and pass off to the sea. …… This scene is worth a voyage across the Atlantic.”  

East of the Blue Ridge mountains, the river enters the the Piedmont geologic zone with its rolling hills and rich farmland. Loudoun County and Algonkian Regional Park are in the Piedmont zone. At Great Falls, Virginia (about mile 270), the river drops steeply through a gorge and descends to the Coastal Plain geologic  zone. At Great Falls, the Washington Aqueduct collects water for Washington, DC.  From the Coastal  Plain geologic  zone the river empties into its mouth at Chesapeake Bay.

Jessica's photos of the river were taken at Algonkian Regional Park in Sterling, Virginia.

Trees of Virginia

In March, Seth came to Virginia for a visit and allowed me to take him everywhere except Washington DC.  Neither of us are fans of crowds and we know we have plenty of time to do the tourist stuff when other people are around.  With just the two of us hanging out, we saw no reason why we shouldn't go exploring west of the DC area.  We, unfortunately, picked one of the worst days in March to go to Shenandoah National Park (about a two hour drive from where I live).  Considering how foggy it was, these photos can hardly do the park justice, but it will give you a rough idea of how amazing it is up there.  It also spurred Seth's curiosity and he has contributed his findings about the trees we saw (and those we did not) for today's post. - Jess



The Trees in Shenandoah National Park by Seth Abbott

The sight of the beautiful forested hillsides in the park at first brings to mind Longfellow’s introductory lines in the poem Evangeline:

“This is the forest primeval,

The murmuring pines and the hemlocks,

Bearded with moss, and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight,

Stand like Druids of eld, with voices sad and prophetic”

View from Dickey Ridge Outlook in Shenandoah National Park

 However, as the national park guide explains, today’s view of the forests is not the same as that which Americans had viewed for centuries, for the 20th century saw the extinction of the majestic American chestnut and near extinction of the Eastern hemlock, two of the previously dominant trees in the Alleghenies and Blue Ridge mountains of Shenandoah National Park.

About 1904, the pathogenic sac fungus, Cryphonectria parasitica, the cause of “chestnut blight, was accidentally introduced into the eastern United States through imported Asian chestnut lumber or trees. This caused a mass extinction of the majestic American chestnut tree, which grew between 50-200 feet in height with trunks up to 14 feet around and were the main lumber used to construct American houses east of the Mississippi for three centuries. Whereas the European and the Asian chestnut tree had some resistance to the chestnut blight, the larger American chestnut tree had none. By 1940, the American chestnut tree had been virtually wiped out and the chestnut blight had deforested almost a quarter of Shenandoah National Park.

Another large tree, the Eastern hemlock, had also been widespread in the southern Appalachians up until the 20th century. Timber harvesting had greatly reduced its numbers throughout the century, and in 1988, an Asian insect (the wooly agelid) arrived to nearly wipe out the Eastern hemlock population.

The Massanutten!  This is as far as we got before the fog banks made us turn back.

With few hemlocks and chestnut trees present today, the view of the park forests is now dominated by red oak, maple, birch, and ash. As seen in the photos, the mountains are beautifully forested, but one is left with a lingering sadness at the loss of what had been the most majestic of the Appalachian trees. Today, we do not see the forest primeval at the park.

View from Signal Knob Outlook in Shenandoah National Park

Heading back down and away from the fog.

For further information on Shenandoah National Park, the trees of the region and the Appalachian Trail (Virginia has more miles of the trail in it than any other state it goes through), we recommend the following books (all available in our store or by clicking on the picture below):

Once you're done being saddened by the loss of trees and you are worn out from hiking, go get yourself an amazing burger and fries at Spelunker's in Front Royal.  Greasy awesomeness.  The name Spelunker's comes from the nearby Luray Caverns and Skyline Caverns where you can go, that's right, spelunking.  Check out the Fried Eggs at Luray Caverns.