Great Falls Park

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. Great Falls Park, managed as part of George Washington Memorial Parkway, is on the southern banks in Virginia, and Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park parkland is along the northern banks of the river in Maryland. Both are operated by the National Park Service. The Potomac and the falls themselves are legally entirely within Maryland, with the state and county boundaries following the south bank of the river. Scenic views are offered on both the Maryland side and the Virginia side. The Billy Goat Trail on Bear Island, accessible from Maryland, offers scenic views of the Great Falls, as do vantage points on Olmsted Island (also accessible from Maryland). There are overlook points on the Virginia side. The Great Falls area is popular for outdoor activities such as kayaking, whitewater rafting, rock climbing, and hiking. Great Falls and Little Falls (about 5 miles downstream) are named in contradistinction to one another.

Olmsted Island is a small island in the middle of the Potomac River in the U.S. state of Maryland, near Great Falls which is a part of C & O Canal National Historical Park, located across the river from Great Falls Park. It is a part of Potomac, Maryland. Named for Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., the landscape architect and preservationist whose famous father designed New York's Central Park, the small island is a bedrock terrace forest that supports rare, threatened and endangered plant species.The island is very rocky and has steep cliffs that face the river, where it has been eroded over time. It also has trees and vegetation. One might also spy a heron, small lizard or wild goose here. The total area of the island (estimating from calibrated satellite footage) is no more than 0.2 square kilometers. A fenced-in wooden tourist walkway winds along the southern part of the island. For the purpose of protecting the island's natural wildlife, visitors are not allowed to leave the tourist walkway. The tourist walkway eventually ends in a scenic overlook platform (see images 1 and 2) that has a beautiful view of the Great Falls of the Potomac River. "Hurricane Agnes washed away all the woody shrubs and trees in 1972," says R. Harrison Wiegand, a regional ecologist for the Wildlife and Heritage Service of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. "The next big flood will wash them away again. The floods constantly change things. You may see a rare species in one area, then the floods will come through and wash it out. Some other plants will grow there instead. This is one of the most biologically diverse habitats within the whole national park system."The trail leading to Olmsted Island is handicapped accessible and has wheelchair ramps, but dogs are not permitted.

Matildaville is a ghost town located along the Patowmack Canal near present day Great Falls, Virginia, United States. It was named for the wife of Light Horse Harry Lee, on 40 acres of land owned at the time by Bryan Fairfax, 8th Lord Fairfax of Cameron, and served as headquarters for the Patowmack Company from 1785 until 1799. Now, all that remains of the town are a series of ruins on the grounds of Great Falls Park.

The Billy Goat Trail is a 4.7-mile (7.6 km) hiking trail that follows a path between the C&O Canal and the Potomac River within the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park near the Great Falls in Montgomery County, Maryland. The trail has three sections: Section A, the northernmost, is 1.7 miles (2.7 km); Section B is 1.4 miles (2.3 km); and Section C, the southernmost, is 1.6 miles (2.6 km)

The Patowmack Canal, sometimes called the Potomac Canal, is a series of five inoperative canals located in Maryland and Virginia, United States, that was designed to bypass rapids in the Potomac River upstream of the present Washington, D.C., area. The most well known of them is the Great Falls skirting canal, whose remains are managed by the National Park Service as it is within Great Falls Park Virginia, an integral part of the George Washington Memorial Parkway.The first section of the canal opened in 1795, and the canal ended operations in 1828.

Mather Gorge is a river gorge south and just downriver of Great Falls in the state of Maryland bordering Virginia. The Maryland land side of the gorge is Bear Island, part of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park, and the Virginia side is part of Great Falls Park. Both parks are National Park Service sites. The gorge is named after Stephen Mather, the first director of the National Park Service. The gorge is cut by the Potomac River and is, for the most part, lined on both sides by cliffs. Towards the southern end of the gorge, the cliffs become tree-lined bluffs as the gorge widens out into the wider and larger Potomac Gorge. At Little Falls, the Potomac River crosses the Fall Line as it leaves the Appalachian Piedmont and enters the Atlantic Coastal Plain. Hiking is a common activity with many trails along and near the gorge. On the Maryland side, in the C&O Canal National Historical Park, Section A of the Billy Goat Trail follows the gorge—from below Great Falls to above the Anglers Inn river put-in. The River Trail in Great Falls Park follows the gorge on the Virginia side. It is also a popular rock climbing attraction as the cliff heights and terrain lend themselves well to top rope climbing. Generally, most of the rock climbing occurs on the vertical cliffs of the Virginia side of the gorge, below the Observation Decks and above the 90 degree river bend. Whitewater kayaking and canoeing is also very popular within the gorge. From Great Falls to the Difficult Run Rapids (Maryland Chute, Virginia Chute, and Center Chute), the gorge contains Class I to Class VI whitewater rapids.

Bear Island is an island located in Potomac, Montgomery County, Maryland between the Potomac River and the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal near the Great Falls. It is managed by the National Park Service as part of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park and is co-owned by The Nature Conservancy. One of its most popular attractions is the Billy Goat Trail. Pets are not allowed on Bear Island, nor is smoking.

Spring Hill Farm is a historic home located at Great Falls, Fairfax County, Virginia. It was built about 1822, and is a 2+1⁄2-story, frame farmhouse dwelling in the Federal style. A two-story rear wing was added in 1850. A 19th century south wing was replaced in 1972. Also on the property are two contributing barns, one apparently built before the American Civil War and one built in 1890.It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.

Cornwell Farm is a historic home located in Great Falls, Fairfax County, Virginia. It was built in 1831, and is a two-story, five-bay brick dwelling with a hipped roof in the Georgian style. It has a 1+1⁄2-story addition connected by a gambrel roofed hyphen built in 1936–1937.The house was constructed by John Jackson for his daughter, Julia Jackson Davis, when the farm was called Mine Ridge. After a period when it was named Fairview, it was eventually known as Cornwell Farm after owner B.F. Cornwell. Following a period of abandonment, it was restored by Robert Thompson Pell from 1936, who expanded the house. Additions were designed by architrect Theodore W. Dominick.The house was later owned by Louisiana congressman Jerry Huckaby and his wife Suzanna. The property is the subject of an effort to purchase and preserve it, to avoid possible demolition and construction of a six-house subdivision. Cornwell Farm was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.

Four Stairs is a historic home located at Great Falls, Fairfax County, Virginia. The earliest section was built about 1737, as a gable-roofed, one-room, one-story with loft log house. It was later enlarged with a shed-roofed west side log pen and rear shed-roofed timber-framed kitchen. These early sections were raised to two-stories after 1796. A two-story, three-bay, parlor-and-side-hall-plan frame addition in the Greek Revival style was built about 1850, and became the focus of the house. The house was restored in 2002–2004. Also on the property are a contributing a family cemetery and a stone-lined hand-dug well.It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004.

Difficult Run is a 15.9-mile-long (25.6 km) tributary stream of the Potomac River in Northern Virginia in the United States. The area has had many historical uses dating back to the early 1800s. Today, the area is used recreationally by visitors interested in the watershed's variety of options including hiking, biking, fishing, boating, climbing, and bird watching. The wildlife at Difficult Run is vast as 163 different species can be seen depending on the season. There are 41 different soil types found on the trail and alongside the stream. The stream is part of the greater 57.7- square-mile Drainage basin, or watershed, located in the north-central portion of Fairfax County and drains directly to the Potomac River. Difficult Run flows through Fairfax County to Great Falls Park, on the Virginia side of the Potomac River. The portion of the run through the park has been characterized as "a miniature Mather Gorge and Great Falls." The stream picks up speed as it narrows into a steep gorge with waterfalls and quickly reaches the same level as the Potomac. At the mouth of Difficult Run, one can see a panoramic view of the Potomac River.

The Great Falls Grange Hall and Forestville School are two historic buildings that served as a Grange meeting hall and as a school located in Great Falls, Fairfax County, Virginia. The Forestville School was built in 1889 as a one-room school, and expanded in 1911 with the appendage of the Floris School. It is an "L"-shaped wood-frame structure covered in weatherboards and topped by a standing-seam metal cross-gable roof. After closing as a school in 1922, it served as a residence and then as the Great Falls Post Office from 1959 until 1982. The Great Falls Grange Hall was built in 1929, and is a 1+1⁄2-story brick building with a gable front. It features a front porch supported by concrete pillars in the American Craftsman style. Both buildings are owned by the Fairfax County Park Authority.The buildings were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004.