The Confusing State of the Potomac River

The Confusing State of the Potomac River

By Joe Motheral

Did you ever wonder why the stretch of the Potomac River running between Maryland and Virginia is considered to be in Maryland, when most state-to-state boundaries exist in the center of rivers?

In 1632, King Charles I sought to accommodate Cecil Calvert, the Baron of Baltimore in part to keep the Dutch from encroaching into the new British colonies. The Baron named the new colony, Maryland after Charles I’s wife, Queen Henrietta Maria.

In the process, Virginia lost control of the land north of the Potomac River and Maryland retained the rights to the River. The Charter of 1632 officially established the colony of Maryland and reduced the size of Virginia.

Then in 1776, the first constitution of Virginia validated the Maryland charter s claim to the Potomac River. Virginia did assert the right to use the River for navigation: to have use of the water and shoreline in what are considered riparian rights.

There followed a series of negotiated settlements in 1785, 1877, and 1958. Several Supreme Court decisions defined how the boundary line was to be handled. 1877, Virginia and Maryland agreed to designate a “commission of arbitrators” to determine the exact location of the boundary between the two states. Its members were Jeremiah S. Black of Pennsylvania, Charles J. Jenkins of Georgia and James B. Beck of Kentucky. That commission determined that the boundary is at the low water mark on the Virginia side of the River, where it is located to this day.

Oysters were once plentiful in the Potomac. All through the 1700s, according to historical sources, quiet battles were waged between the watermen of Maryland and Virginia. It apparently became so intense that in the 1800s the State governments got involved and there was conflict between them and the oyster harvesters. Barges plied the River to monitor the watermen, often leading to conflict.

In 1947, The Washington Post wrote, “Already the sound of rifle fire has echoed across the Potomac River, only 50 miles from Washington men are shooting one another. The night is quiet until suddenly shots snap through the air. Possibly a man is dead, perhaps a boat is taken, but the oyster war will go on until the next night and the next."

Finally, as late as 1962, President Kennedy signed the Potomac Fisheries Bill establishing a bi-state commission to oversee the Potomac River.

There have been some intriguing consequences to the arrangement. One developer in Virginia had to get a permit from Maryland to use the water from the Potomac to irrigate a golf course.

In the 1950s, when gambling and liquor were legal in Maryland but not Virginia, Colonial Beach and Prince William County had slot machines located on boats docked in the river off the Virginia shoreline. Customers would park in Virginia, walk out on the pier, and be in Maryland.

Today, if you want to get married on a boat in the middle of the Potomac River, a Maryland marriage license is necessary.