Potomac Company in 1785, the Society for Promoting the
Improvement of Inland Navigation in 1791, the Western Inland Lock
Navigation Company in 1792, and the Lehigh Coal Mine Company in
1793. A brief review of these various enterprises will give a
clear if not a complete view of the first era of inland water
commerce in America.

The Potomac Company, authorized in 1785 by the legislatures of
Maryland and Virginia, received an appropriation of $6666 from
each State for opening a road from the headwaters of the Potomac
to either the Cheat or the Monongahela, "as commissioners...
shall find most convenient and beneficial to the Western
settlers." This was the only public aid which the enterprise
received; and the stipulated purpose clearly indicates the fact
that, in the minds of its promoters, the transcontinental
character of the undertaking appeared to be vital. The remainder
of the money required for the work was raised by public
subscription in the principal cities of the two States. In this
way 40,300 pounds was subscribed, Virginia men taking 266 shares
and Maryland men 137 shares. The stock holders elected George
Washington as president of the company, at a salary of thirty
shillings a year, with four directors to aid him, and they chose
as general manager James Rumsey, the boat mechanician. These men
then proceeded to attack the chief impediments in the Potomac--
the Great Falls above Washington, the Seneca Falls at the mouth
of Seneca Creek, and the Shenandoah Falls at Harper's Ferry. But,
as they had difficulty in obtaining workmen and sufficient liquor
to cheer them in their herculean tasks, they made such slow
progress that subscribers, doubting Washington's optimistic
prophecy that the stock would increase in value twenty per cent,