Potomac River

State: West Virginia, Maryland, Virginia

Lat/Long: 38.0000, -76.3333

Two hundred and eighty-seven miles long, the Potomac River forms near Cumberland, Maryland by the confluence of its north and south branches. It flows east and southeast into the Chesapeake Bay, forming part of the Maryland-West Virginia border and the Virginia-Maryland and District of Columbia boundaries, with Washington, DC on its eastern bank at the head of navigation. Navigable for large ships to Washington, DC. Mount Vernon, home of George Washington, sits on the river south of Washington.

Webster's New Geographical Dictionary (Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, 1988), 976; Courtlandt Canby, The Encyclopedia of Historic Places (New York: Facts on File, 1984), 2:753.