A Corridor and a Barrier (Historical Marker)

Here follows the inscription written on this roadside historical marker:

A Corridor and a Barrier
Rivers have long served as transportation routes for all manner of boats and vessels, for Native Americans and European settlers, to recreational and commercial traffic today. The Occoquan and other rivers flowing eastward from the Virginia piedmont drop at a rocky divide, known as the Fall Line, to the flat Coastal Plain below. This physical barrier and its many waterfalls hinder upstream travel, requiring vessels to traverse routes between coastal ports.

Here in 1910, the District of Columbia bought 1,115 acres along the lower Occoquan River, establishing a Reform-Era Prison, housing criminals who were often transported by barge. Self-sustaining, its prisoners operated on-site brick kilns and a working farm. Products and materials not used for prison operation were often sold and transported from wharves once lining this shoreline, often to ports in Alexandria and the District of Columbia. Barges are still used to transport sand, gravel and other materials to and from a nearby quarry navigating Occoquan and Belmont Bays on their way to the Potomac River and distant points on the Chesapeake Bay.

Creating a New Park Authority
Ira Gabrielson is best known as the first director of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Under his leadership, the National Wildlife Refuge system conserved millions of acres of critical wildlife habitat. Gabrielson also served as the first chairman of the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority from 1959 to 1975, acquiring waterfront parkland on the Occoquan and Potomac shorelines.

Erected by Chesapeake Bay Gateways Network.