This is a list of islands on the Potomac River and its North and South branches. Because the Potomac belongs to Maryland, the majority of its islands lie within that state with some exceptions including portions located in the District of Columbia.
| Name | Order downstream | State | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| Longs Island | 1 | Maryland | ? |
| Name | Order downstream | State | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| unnamed island | 1 | ? | ? |
| unnamed island | 2 | ? | ? |
| unnamed islands | 3 | ? | ? |
| Piss Pot Island | 4 | West Virginia | ? |
| Valley View Island | 5 | West Virginia | ? |
| unnamed island | 6 | ? | ? |
| unnamed island | 7 | ? | ? |
| unnamed island | 8 | ? | ? |
| unnamed island | 9 | ? | ? |
Harpers Ferry is a historic town in Jefferson County, West Virginia, in the lower Shenandoah Valley. The town's population was 269 at the 2020 United States census. Situated at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers, where Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia meet, it is the easternmost town in West Virginia as well as its lowest point above sea level.
The Potomac River is a major river in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States that flows from the Potomac Highlands in West Virginia to the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. It is 405 miles (652 km) long, with a drainage area of 14,700 square miles (38,000 km2), and is the fourth-largest river along the East Coast of the United States. More than 6 million people live within its watershed.
Point of Rocks is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Frederick County, Maryland. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 1,466.
The Potomac Company was created in 1785 to make improvements to the Potomac River and improve its navigability for commerce. The project is perhaps the first conceptual seed planted in the minds of the new American capitalists in what became a flurry of transportation infrastructure projects, most privately funded, that drove wagon road turnpikes, navigations, and canals, and then as the technology developed, investment funds for railroads across the rough country of the Appalachian Mountains.
The Potomac Heritage Trail, also known as the Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail or the PHT, is a designated National Scenic Trail corridor spanning parts of the mid-Atlantic region of the United States that will connect various trails and historic sites in Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and the District of Columbia. The trail network includes 710 miles (1,140 km) of existing and planned sections, tracing the natural, historical, and cultural features of the Potomac River corridor, the upper Ohio River watershed in Pennsylvania and western Maryland, and a portion of the Rappahannock River watershed in Virginia. The trail is managed by the National Park Service and is one of three National Trails that are official NPS units.
The George Washington Memorial Parkway, colloquially the G.W. Parkway, is a 25-mile-long (40 km) limited-access parkway that runs along the south bank of the Potomac River from Mount Vernon, Virginia, northwest to McLean, Virginia, and is maintained by the National Park Service (NPS). It is located almost entirely in Northern Virginia, except for a short portion of the parkway northwest of the Arlington Memorial Bridge that passes over Columbia Island in Washington, D.C.
The American Legion Memorial Bridge, also known as the American Legion Bridge and formerly as the Cabin John Bridge, is a bridge carrying Interstate 495 across the Potomac River between Montgomery County, Maryland and Fairfax County, Virginia in the United States. It is an American Water Landmark. Plummers Island is located immediately downstream of the bridge.
Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, originally Harpers Ferry National Monument, is located at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers in and around Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. The park includes the historic center of Harpers Ferry, notable as a key 19th-century industrial area and as the scene of John Brown's failed abolitionist uprising. It contains the most visited historic site in the state of West Virginia, John Brown's Fort.
The National Register of Historic Places in the United States is a register including buildings, sites, structures, districts, and objects. The Register automatically includes all National Historic Landmarks as well as all historic areas administered by the U.S. National Park Service. Since its introduction in 1966, more than 97,000 separate listings have been added to the register.
Fairfax Stone Historical Monument State Park is a West Virginia state park commemorating the Fairfax Stone, a surveyor's marker and boundary stone at the source of the North Branch of the Potomac River. The original stone was placed on October 23, 1746 to settle a boundary dispute between Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron and the Privy Council of Great Britain concerning the Northern Neck of Virginia. It determined the proprietorship and boundaries of a large tract of mostly unsurveyed land in the British colonies of Maryland and Virginia.
Great Falls is a series of rapids and waterfalls on the Potomac River, 14 miles (23 km) upstream from Washington, D.C., on the border of Montgomery County, Maryland and Fairfax County, Virginia. The Potomac and the falls themselves are legally entirely within Maryland, since the state's border follows the south bank of the river.
The Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company, usually known as C&P Telephone, is a former d/b/a name for four Bell Operating Companies providing service to Washington, D.C., Maryland, West Virginia, and Virginia.
Broad Run is a tributary of the Potomac River in Loudoun County, Virginia. The creek, located between Goose Creek and Sugarland Run, principally drains portions of eastern Loudoun County, as well as a small portion of western Fairfax County.
The Islands of the Potomac Wildlife Management Area is a Wildlife Management Area (WMA) consisting of 30 islands in the Potomac River in Maryland along its border with the state of Virginia. It is administered by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.
Nolands Ferry I Archeological Site is an archaeological site near the historic Noland's Ferry boat landing at mile 44.58 on the C&O Canal and Tuscarora. The Archeological Site is a prehistoric occupation site located in the Monocacy region of southern Frederick County, Maryland. Diagnostic artifacts at the site indicate that the site was almost continuously inhabited from the Paleo-Indian period to the early 19th century, with the most substantial inhabitation occurring during the Late Woodland period.
Maryland v. West Virginia, 217 U.S. 1 (1910), is a 9-to-0 ruling by the United States Supreme Court which held that the boundary between the American states of Maryland and West Virginia is the south bank of the North Branch Potomac River. The decision also affirmed criteria for adjudicating boundary disputes between states, which said that decisions should be based on the specific facts of the case, applying the principles of law and equity in such a way that least disturbs private rights and title to land.
Lowes Island is a census-designated place (CDP) in Loudoun County, Virginia, United States. The population as of the 2010 United States Census was 10,756. Along with nearby Countryside and Cascades, it is considered one of the three main components of the Potomac Falls community.
Virginia v. Maryland, 540 U.S. 56 (2003), is a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States settled a dispute between the Commonwealth of Virginia and the State of Maryland regarding Virginia's riparian rights to the Potomac River. The Supreme Court held in a 7–2 decision that Maryland has no legal authority to regulate or prohibit Virginia, its political subdivisions, or its citizens from building or improving structures in the river or from drawing water from the river. The decision drew heavily on the Maryland–Virginia Compact of 1785, an agreement between the two states concerning navigational and riparian water rights along the Potomac River.
The North Branch Potomac River flows from Fairfax Stone in West Virginia to its confluence with the South Branch Potomac River near Green Spring, West Virginia, where it turns into the Potomac River proper.
