Great Falls was the site of George Washington's pet project, the Patowmack Canal. His goal was the make the Potomac river Navigable as far as the ohio river valley, to establish trading and bind the states together. 

 

 

 

 

It was a project that required a lot of cooperation between the states of virginia and maryland, and new trading agreements. Washington presided over the project himself, and frequently visited the Canal during its construction until his death.

 

Unfortunately the canal wasn't viable long term, and though the company

that built it went bankrupt, they pioneered lock engineering and set off

a lot of canal building projects across the country. 

 

United States. National Park Service. "The Patowmack Canal." National Parks Service. U.S. Department of the Interior, 18 Oct. 2015. Web. 18 Oct. 2015.

Great Falls Potomac River. Digital image. Wikimedia. N.p., n.d. Web. <https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7e/Great_Falls_Potomac_River_VA.JPG>.