The Great Falls of the Potomac River are located at the fall line of the Potomac River, 14 miles (23 km) upstream from Washington, D.C. Great Falls Park, operated by the National Park Service, is located on the southern banks in Virginia, while Chesapeake and Ohio Canal parkland is located along the northern banks of the river in Maryland.
The Billy Goat Trail on Bear Island, accessible from Maryland, offers scenic views of the Great Falls, as do vantage points on Olmsted Island (also accessible from Maryland) and overlook points on the Virginia side. The Great Falls area is popular for outdoor activities such as kayaking, whitewater rafting, rock climbing, and hiking.
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History
Roughly 35,000 years ago, the Potomac River began carving out the Great Falls of the Potomac. The waters of the river gather speed as they are forced through the narrow Mather Gorge and cascade over a series of several 20-foot (6-meter) falls. The water falls a total of 76 feet (23 meters) in elevation over a distance of less than 1 mile (1.6 km), making the Great Falls the steepest and most spectacular fall line rapids of any river in the eastern United States.[1]
See also
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Great Falls of the Potomac River |
Notes
References
- "Great Falls of the Potomac". NASA Earth Observatory. http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=16620. Retrieved on 2006-05-24.
External links
- Great Falls Visitor Center official site
- Great Falls Park official site
- Satellite imagery of Great Falls on Google Maps
| Potomac River system Cities and towns | Bridges | Islands | Tributaries | Variant names District of Columbia | Maryland | Pennsylvania | Virginia | West Virginia Streams shown as: Major tributaries • subtributaries • (subsubtributaries) • (subsubsubtributaries) |
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Lakes and reservoirs
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