Active Woman Traveler

From Chesapeake Conservancy

Four centuries ago the Potomac and Anacostia rivers near present-day Washington, D.C., were corridors of trade. It was here the Chesapeake Bay Indian tribes of the Coastal Plain met to barter furs and other goods with neighboring and Piedmont tribes.

When the first Europeans arrived their mission was partly commercial—to find valuable minerals for their patrons and a trade route to the Orient, the so-called Northwest Passage. Captain John Smith and his men found neither silver nor a shortcut to the Pacific when they ascended the Potomac, but their journey did open the river to later European settlement and to two monumental engineering efforts on the upper Potomac to bypass its unnavigable waters and reach the western frontier. 

It’s not often that an urban area can preserve commercially valuable but historically significant waterfront. Highways, office buildings, houses, and a large airport crowd the Nation’s Capital, but greater Washington, D.C., has managed to set aside large stretches for public use along the upper Potomac and tributaries such as the Anacostia.

Visit these parks, refuges, and water trails and you’ll discover the river’s storied history, its surprisingly diverse array of flora and fauna, and some of the unparalleled natural scenery that Captain John Smith beheld so long ago.

The National Park Service has prepared three suggested itineraries along the Potomac and its tributaries. These varied journeys will introduce you to the natural and cultural history of some of the Chesapeake's most striking landscapes.