Explore the Georgetown Waterfront

Explore the Georgetown Waterfront! The area has gone through many changes--from Native American village to industrial hub to recreational green space. Start your visit at Thompson Boat Center and look for the C&O Canal's Mile Marker 0. Near this site, George Gordon ran a tobacco trading warehouse before Georgetown was established. Walk along the boardwalk and imagine large, wooden ships powered by sail instead of the smaller, modern gas-powered vessels of today that might be tied up along the dock. Georgetown Waterfront Park--now a beautiful green space--was once an area packed with mills and industrial complexes. In the 1980s and 1990s a parking lot stretched between the buildings of the Harbour complex towards Key Bridge. Georgetown Waterfront park has lots of seating to watch water craft and birds. Marble slabs overlooking the waterfront are etched with images that share the waterfront's past. Take a walk through the labyrinth---contemplate the changes the waterfront has undergone. What's your favorite part? The Potomac River became too shallow for the ocean-going vessels to navigate. The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal was dug to help bypass the shallow waters and rapids of the Potomac River as well as the impassable section at Great Falls. When shipping by boat became obsolete, the rail road kept trains in the waterfront and it was used by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad for many years. The waterfront was also occupied by many businesses, mills and large industrial warehouses that used the waters of the Potomac River to drive the equipment. Continue your exploration under the eleveated Whitehurst Freeway and take in the graceful archways beneath Key Bridge. Keep an eye out for the Aqueduct Bridge that used to carry canal boats from the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal to the Alexandria Canal on the other side of the Potomac.