SANITARY SURVEY OF THE DRAINAGE BASIN OF THE 
POTOMAC RIVER 
By Joseph Goldberger, 
Passed Assistant Surgeon, Public Health and Marine- Hospital Service. 
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. 
In the course of this survej^ I visited every town of importance on 
the Avatershed. To supplement my oAvn observations I have draAvn 
freely from an elaborate stud}^ of the hydrography of the Potomac 
River “ about to be published by the hydrographic division of the 
United States Geological Survey, the manuscript of which Avas most 
generously lent to me by the chief hydrographer, Mr. M. O. Leighton. 
To Prof. Willis L. Moore, Chief of the United States Weather 
Bureau, I am indebted for the data relating to precipitation and tem- 
perature. 
DRAINAGE BASIN. 
The Potomac River is formed by the junction of the North and 
South branches about 25 miles beloAA^ Cumberland. From this point 
it floAA’s in a southeasterly direction for a distance of 153 miles to the 
dam at Great Falls. It forms the boundary betAA^een Maryland on 
the north and Virginia and West Virginia on the south. In its course 
it has carved a passage almost at right angles across mountain 
ridges AARose general trend is northeast to southAvest, so that the 
numerous tributaries AARich it receives come from the north and the 
south and have the general direction of the ridges from whose steep 
sides the Avaters rush to form several streams of considerable size. 
The North Branch rises at the Fairfax Stone in the Avestern part of 
West Virginia and Aoaa-s in a northeasterly direction through a tortu- 
ous steep-banked and quick-spilling valley. At Cumberland, about 
80 miles from the Fairfax Stone, it curves sharply and Avinds its AA^ay 
in a southeasterly direction for a distance of 23 miles before uniting 
Avith the South Branch. 
o Water Supply Paper No. 192, U. S. Geol. Survey. 
231 
