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One of the pet projects of George Washington was the ultimately unsuccessful Patowmack Canal (also called the Potomac Canal). He pushed for its creation, which led to the settlement of Matildaville - now a ghost town. Matildaville is located in Great Falls Park in Virginia and is a great place to explore while in the capital area.
Long before American engineers finally conquered Panama and built the Panama Canal, the challenge was to try to conquer the Potomac just upstream from Washington, D.C. It is a fascinating tale that involves some of the best of American engineering, George Washington, and the ruins of canals and a ghost town today.
Patowmack Canal - George Washington's Pet Project
The Patowmack Canal is a series of five canals in Maryland and Virginia. It was intended to bypass the rapids of the Potomac River upstream of Washington D.C. and to promote transport and trade with the interior of the country.
Today the canal lies abandoned, with the parts of it managed by the National Park Service. The most famous part of the canal is the Great Falls Canal which once skirted the Great Falls. The canal is also an important part of the George Washington Memorial Parkway.
- Opened: 1795-1802
- Bankrupt: 1828
- Abandoned: 1830
Eventually, the Patowmack Canal was doomed because of costs and financial strain. The tolls it collected weren't even able to pay for the interest on the company's debt. It ceased to operate in 1828, was sold off, and then abandoned in 1830.
The project had been an obsession of George Washington since his youth, and he died in 1799 before seeing its final completion when the Great Falls Canal was finished in 1801 and opened to traffic in 1802. According to the National Park Service, he would frequently toast "Success to the navigation of the Potomac!" Instead, it has become a footnote of America's early history.
The Story Of The Patowmack Canal's Matildaville
Today Matildaville is a ghost town on the Patowmack Canal. It is located close to Great Falls in Virginia. It was once the base for the headquarters of the Patowmack Company (between 1785 and 1799).
The Patowmack Canal was a big project, and the whole Matildaville town grew up around the construction site to service the project.
The founder of the town was Harry Lee (called "Light Horse" Harry Lee). He was a hero of the American War of Independence and the father of the Confederate Robert E. Lee. The town was named after his first wife, Matilda Lee.
In its day, Matildaville had a market, gristmill, sawmill, foundry, inn, worker's barracks, some boarding houses, a number of small homes, and more. It was also a place where boaters would stop to wait to pass through the locks.
Visiting Matildaville Today
Visitors to Matildaville only find a few remains of the town. There is a series of ruins in what is today Great Falls Park. Only a few fragile remains of the town remain today.
See the ruins of the canal and the Matildaville ghost town in Great Falls Park. The entry ticket is also valid for entrance into the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park.
- Entry Fee: $20.00 (Per Vehicle)
- Size: 800 Acre Park
Visiting Great Falls Park is an easy excursion while visiting the nation's capital Washington, D.C. It is only around 15 miles from the capital. It is so close to Washington that it can be part of the itinerary of top things to do while in the capital.
See the ghost town that sprang up to create what was called the greatest American engineering feat of its time. In its heyday, it attracted tourists from far and wide to watch the canal being built. But as it turned out, "America's greatest engineering feat" didn't work out, and the ruins of Matildaville lay scattered as a testament to that fact.
Matildaville's first and last building was Dickey's Farmhouse. Unfortunately, it went up in flames in 1950 (although pictures survive). The blaze marked the final act of the death of Matildaville as it became a ghost town.
Today visitors should get a plan for the town and picture in one's mind's eye what the town once looked like from the few foundations left behind. If one didn't know what was there, perhaps visitors wouldn't even have known that there was once a town there.