| • Science | • People | • Locations | • Timeline |
The Potomac River springs from southwest Maryland (MD). The river then forms part of the borders between MD and Washington, DC (the District of Columbia) on the left bank and the State of West Virginia (WV) and the Commonwealth of Virginia (VA) on the right bank. Up to its right bank, the entire Potomac River is considered part of MD, with the exception of a small tidal portion within DC. The river pours out 13000 gallons of water a minute.
About 300 miles (483 km) from the source, the Potomac River's estuarine portion commences. About 11 km² of water enters the estuary each year (250 m³/s) at the fall line at Little Falls. Fall line flow is quite variable across months and years, highest during the spring freshet and lowest in late summer (in the absence of hurricanes or major storms).
The river's source is 396 m above sea level and it drops to 61 m at Morgantown, West VirginiaMorgantown is a city located in Monongalia County, West Virginia on the banks of the Monongahela River. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 26,809. Morgantown is home to West Virginia University which constitues 913 acres (3. 7 km²). Once the Potomac drops from the PiedmontPiedmont is the region of the eastern United States which lies between the coastal plain, from which it is divided by the fall line, and the eastern mountain ranges, the Appalachian Mountains. The width of the Piedmont varies, being quite narrow or vanish to the Coastal Plain, tides further influence the river as it passes through DC and beyond. Salinity in the Potomac River Estuary increases thereafter with distance downstream. The estuary also widens, reaching 11 statute miles (17 km) wide at its mouth, between Point Lookout, MD, and Smith Point, VA, before merging into Chesapeake Bay.
Major Potomac tributaries include the Shenandoah RiverThis article is about the river in Virginia in the United States. For other uses, see Shenandoah River (disambiguation The Shenandoah River is a tributary of the Potomac River, approximately 150 mi (241 km) long, in the U. states of Virginia and West Virg (WV and VA) and the Monocacy RiverThe Monocacy River is a free-flowing tributary of the Potomac River, which empties into the Atlantic Ocean via the Chesapeake Bay. The river is approximately 58 statute miles (93. 3 km) long, with a drainage area of about 744 mi² (1,927 km²). It is the la (MD) above the fall-line and the Anacostia RiverThe Anacostia River is a river that flows about 8. 5 km) from Prince George's County in Maryland, to cut through from east to south in Washington, DC, where it empties into the Potomac River. The Anacostia River was originally known simply as "the Eastern (DC and MD) and Occoquan River (VA) below the fall-line.
Over 5 million people live within the Potomac watershedFor a term related to television programmes, see watershed (television). A watershed or water basin is the region of land that drains into a specified body of water, such as a river, lake, sea, or ocean. Rain that falls anywhere within a given body of wat, where precipitation provides the equivalent of over 8 m³ (more than 2100 gallons) of water per person per year.