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Article: The River View? Frequently Gorges.; Along the Potomac, a Subtly Grand Canyon
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- May 9, 2004
- Author:
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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You'd think a gorge would be a hard thing to hide. You'd think
people would notice a thing like that. But the would-be protectors of
the Potomac Gorge have to contend with the peculiar fact that most
people have never heard of such a thing. It's baffling. It's like: 2
million years of erosion for nothing.
The National Park Service and the Nature Conservancy will tell you
that the Potomac Gorge runs from just above Great Falls all the way
to Teddy Roosevelt Island, below Georgetown, a distance of 15 miles.
That stretch of river surely contains many gorgelike and quasi-
gorgelike features: whitewater, boulders, rocky ledges, scoured
bedrock terraces, cliffs, quarries, places where you have ...