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Potomac River

river in the mid-Atlantic United States

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The Potomac River is a major waterway in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States that flows through several states and serves as an important geographic and political landmark. It matters because it has historically shaped settlement patterns, commerce, and transportation in the region, and today it remains central to the identity and infrastructure of communities along its banks, including the nation's capital.

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The Potomac River (/pəˈtoʊmək/ ) is in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States and flows from the Potomac Highlands in West Virginia to Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. It is 405 miles (652 km) long, with a drainage area of 14,700 square miles (38,000 km), and is the fourth-largest river along the East Coast of the United States. More than 6 million people live within its watershed.

The river forms the boundary separating the jurisdictions on its left descending bank (Maryland and Washington, D.C.) from those on its right descending bank (West Virginia and Virginia). Except for a small portion of its headwaters in West Virginia, the North Branch Potomac River is considered part of Maryland to the low-water mark on the opposite bank. The South Branch Potomac River lies completely within the state of West Virginia except for its headwaters, which lie in Virginia. All navigable parts of the river were designated as a National Recreation Trail in 2006, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) designated an 18-square-mile (47 km) portion of the river in Charles County, Maryland, as the Mallows Bay–Potomac River National Marine Sanctuary in 2019.