first major public use for Seneca stone was the Great Falls Skirting Canal (better known as the Potowmack Canal), which the Potowmack Company opened in 1802. George Washington chartered the company in 1785 to make navigation improvements on the river. Still visible on the Virginia side of Great Falls, the mile-long canal had five locks, but it lacked the scale to carry heavy traffic. Canal builders decided they needed something bigger—a continuous waterway for larger boats that would connect Washington to Pittsburgh. Thus was born the idea for the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal. The
