within six months washington claimed "of the 5,000 pounds required for the potomac navigation, it is increasing fast. at their first meeting in that month, shareholders elected washington as the company's president. for washington, the presidency of the potomac company became a consuming occupation but one he pursued while also managing his plantation and investment properties. he threw himself into deciding to dig bypasses around them, hiring supervisors and workers and overseeing the means of operation. on field trips he frequently canoed down the riff's wildest rapids in search for a best place for a channel or to inspect work in progress. retirement from the walks of life has not been so productive as leisure and ease as might have been expected washington reeve marked to benjamin franklin. by the fall of 1785 when he sent these remarks to franklin, the company had separate team of about 50 workers. congress was too slow for washington. in a boat he passed down the seneca rapid to a place where the workman were blowing up. to me it seemed as if we had advanced but little. still, w

in fact, however, in his work on the potomac river navigation, washington had more success moving human ob tack -- obstacles than physical ones. the project was far from finished in 1789 when he designed as potomac company's president to take the helm of the new american government. no one made a fortune on potomac company stook. -- stock. railroads soon replaced canals in linking the union. steeped impedements, slopes, doomed washington's grand vision for potomac navigation. yet if he could not move mountains, the project proved he could move men. before he stepped down, washington followed up on his success in getting the company founded and funded with a singular triumph of clearing obstacles and adoption of the landmark potomac river compact. the prospect of commercial navigation the potomac brought to the for long-standing disputes between virginia and maryland. each state was a republic to itself. it could have the own rules and regulation. some -- unless the states cooperated, traveling along an interstate boundary like the potomac river could impose insol oohable problems for pe