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Aquia Creek
Aquia Creek () is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed August 15, 2011 tributary of the tidal segment of the Potomac River and is located in Northern Virginia. The creek's headwaters lie in southeastern Fauquier County, and it empties into the Potomac at Brent Point in Stafford County, south of Washington, D.C. The White House was built largely using sandstone quarried from Aquia Creek from 1792 to 1799. History The Public Quarry at Government Island in the creek served as the source for Aquia Creek sandstone. This sandstone was used in numerous public buildings; the National Capitol Columns were quarried in the early 1800s, and transported to Washington on a barge. The White House, which began its construction in 1799, was built largely from sandstone material that was quarried from the banks of Aquia Creek from the previous seven years (1792-1799). In an early American Civil War skirmish, the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Aquia Creek
The Battle of Aquia Creek was an exchange of cannon fire between Union Navy gunboats and Confederate shore batteries on the Potomac River at its confluence with Aquia Creek in Stafford County, Virginia. The battle took place from May 29, 1861 to June 1, 1861 during the early days of the American Civil War. The Confederates set up several shore batteries to block Union military and commercial vessels from moving in the Chesapeake Bay and along the lower Potomac River as well as for defensive purposes. The battery at Aquia also was intended to protect the railroad terminal at that location. The Union forces sought to destroy or remove these batteries as part of the effort to blockade Confederate States coastal and Chesapeake Bay ports. The battle was tactically inconclusive. Each side inflicted little damage and no serious casualties on the other. The Union vessels were unable to dislodge the Confederates from their positions or to inflict serious casualties on their garrisons or s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Public Quarry At Government Island
The Public Quarry at Government Island in Stafford County, Virginia was the principal source of Aquia Creek sandstone, a building stone used in many of the early government buildings in Washington, D.C., including the U.S. Capitol and the White House. History A quarry was established just off the Potomac River at Wigginton's Island on Aquia Creek by George Brent after 1694. It provided stone for tombstones and to houses and churches in northern Virginia, including Gunston Hall, Christ Church in Alexandria, Virginia, Mount Airy in Richmond County, Virginia, and Aquia Church, as well as steps and walkways at George Washington's Mount Vernon. Washington selected Aquia sandstone as the primary material for use in Washington's government buildings. Acting on the government's behalf, the Wigginton's Island quarry was purchased by Pierre Charles L'Enfant in 1791, becoming known afterward as Government Island. Use of the stone declined as its susceptibility to weathering was obse ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rivers Of Virginia
This is a list of rivers in the U.S. state of Virginia. By drainage basin This list is arranged by drainage basin, with respective tributaries, arranged in the order of their confluence from mouth to source, indented under each larger stream's name. Atlantic Ocean north of Chesapeake Bay *Cockle Creek (Virginia), Cockle Creek *Machipongo River Chesapeake Bay *Pocomoke River *Potomac River **Hull Creek (Potomac River tributary), Hull Creek **Coan River **Yeocomico River ***Northwest Yeocomico River ***South Yeocomico River ***West Yeocomico River **Lower Machodoc Creek **Nomini Creek **Popes Creek (Virginia), Popes Creek **Mattox Creek **Rosier Creek **Upper Machodoc Creek **Potomac Creek ***Accokeek Creek **Aquia Creek **Chopawamsic Creek **Quantico Creek **Neabsco Creek **Occoquan River ***Massey Creek (Occoquan River tributary), Massey Creek ***Sandy Run (Occoquan River tributary), Sandy Run ***Stillwell Run ***Bull Run (Occoquan River tributary), Bull Run ****Popes Head Creek ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rivers Of Fauquier County, Virginia
A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside Subterranean river, caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of its course if it runs out of water, or only flow during certain seasons. Rivers are regulated by the water cycle, the processes by which water moves around the Earth. Water first enters rivers through precipitation, whether from rainfall, the Runoff (hydrology), runoff of water down a slope, the melting of glaciers or snow, or seepage from aquifers beneath the surface of the Earth. Rivers flow in channeled watercourses and merge in confluences to form drainage basins, or catchments, areas where surface water eventually flows to a common outlet. Rivers have a great effect on the landscape around them. They may regularly overflow their Bank (geography), banks and flood the surrounding area, spreading nutrients to the surrounding area. Sedime ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Rivers Of Virginia
This is a list of rivers in the U.S. state of Virginia. By drainage basin This list is arranged by drainage basin, with respective tributaries, arranged in the order of their confluence from mouth to source, indented under each larger stream's name. Atlantic Ocean north of Chesapeake Bay * Cockle Creek * Machipongo River Chesapeake Bay *Pocomoke River *Potomac River ** Hull Creek ** Coan River ** Yeocomico River *** Northwest Yeocomico River *** South Yeocomico River *** West Yeocomico River ** Lower Machodoc Creek ** Nomini Creek ** Popes Creek ** Mattox Creek ** Rosier Creek ** Upper Machodoc Creek **Potomac Creek ***Accokeek Creek **Aquia Creek **Chopawamsic Creek **Quantico Creek **Neabsco Creek **Occoquan River *** Massey Creek *** Sandy Run ***Stillwell Run *** Bull Run **** Popes Head Creek **** Cub Run **** Little Bull Run **** Foley Branch *** Cedar Run *** Broad Run **** Kettle Run ** Pohick Creek **Accotink Creek ** Dogue Creek ** Little Hunting Creek ** Hunting Creek ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chesapeake Bay
The Chesapeake Bay ( ) is the largest estuary in the United States. The bay is located in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region and is primarily separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the Delmarva Peninsula, including parts of the Eastern Shore of Maryland, the Eastern Shore of Virginia, and the state of Delaware. The mouth of the bay at its southern point is located between Cape Henry and Cape Charles (headland), Cape Charles. With its northern portion in Maryland and the southern part in Virginia, the Chesapeake Bay is a very important feature for the ecology and economy of those two states, as well as others surrounding within its watershed. More than 150 major rivers and streams flow into the bay's drainage basin, which covers parts of six states (New York (state), New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia) and all of Washington, D.C. The bay is approximately long from its northern headwaters in the Susquehanna River to its outlet i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Union (American Civil War)
The Union was the central government of the United States during the American Civil War. Its civilian and military forces resisted the Confederate State of America, Confederacy's attempt to Secession in the United States, secede following the 1860 United States presidential election, election of Abraham Lincoln as president of the United States. Presidency of Abraham Lincoln, Lincoln's administration asserted the permanency of the federal government of the United States, federal government and the continuity of the Constitution of the United States, United States Constitution. Nineteenth-century Americans commonly used the term Union to mean either the federal government of the United States or the unity of the states within the Federalism in the United States, federal constitutional framework. The Union can also refer to the people or territory of the states that remained loyal to the national government during the war. The loyal states are also known as the North, although fou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The White House
The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800 when the national capital was moved from Philadelphia. "The White House" is also used as a metonym to refer to the Executive Office of the President of the United States. The residence was designed by Irish-born architect James Hoban in the Neoclassical style. Hoban modeled the building on Leinster House in Dublin, a building which today houses the Oireachtas, the Irish legislature. Constructed between 1792 and 1800, its exterior walls are Aquia Creek sandstone painted white. When Thomas Jefferson moved into the house in 1801, he and architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe added low colonnades on each wing to conceal what then were stables and storage. In 1814, during the War of 1812, the mansion was set ablaze by British forces in the burning ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barge
A barge is typically a flat-bottomed boat, flat-bottomed vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. Original use was on inland waterways, while modern use is on both inland and ocean, marine water environments. The first modern barges were pulled by tugs, but on inland waterways, most are pushed by Pusher (boat), pusher boats, or other vessels. The term ''barge'' has a rich history, and therefore there are many types of barges. History of the barge Etymology ''Barge'' is attested from 1300, from Old French ''barge'', from Vulgar Latin ''barga''. The word originally could refer to any small boat; the modern meaning arose around 1480. ''Bark'' "small ship" is attested from 1420, from Old French ''barque'', from Vulgar Latin ''barca'' (400 AD). A more precise meaning (see Barque) arose in the 17th century and often takes the French spelling for disambiguation. Both are probably derived from the Latin ''barica'', from Greek language, Greek ''baris'' "Eg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National Capitol Columns
The National Capitol Columns are a monument in Washington, D.C.'s United States National Arboretum, National Arboretum. It is an arrangement of twenty-two Corinthian columns that were a part of the United States Capitol from 1828 to 1958, placed amid of open meadow, known as the Ellipse Meadow. Original use The columns were quarried from Aquia Creek sandstone, sandstone near Aquia Creek in Virginia and transported to Washington on a barge. Old identification marks from the quarry are still visible on some stones. They were originally built as part of the east portico of the Capitol in 1828, long before the familiar United States Capitol dome, Capitol dome was completed. However, when the dome was completed in 1866, it appeared inadequately supported by the columns because the iron dome was significantly larger than the dome that the designer envisioned. To correct this visual illusion, an addition to the east side of the Capitol was constructed in 1958, and the columns were r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aquia Creek Sandstone
Aquia Creek sandstone is a brown to light-gray freestone used extensively in building construction in Washington, D.C. in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Quarried at Aquia Creek in Stafford County, Virginia, the stone was valuable for its ease of shaping and the quarry's proximity to the tidewater portion of the Potomac River, south of Washington. The sandstone was the principal material used in such significant buildings as the White House and the early stages of the U.S. Capitol. The easy availability of the stone and its ability to be carved were offset in time by its susceptibility to weather-induced deterioration. Its best, most enduring uses were as interior decorative elements. Geology The sandstone is part of the Aquia Formation of Paleocene age. It is composed of rounded, coarse- to fine-grains of quartz, cemented with silica and containing scattered pellets of clay as large as an inch in diameter. This sandstone is typically gray or tan, sometimes with st ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
