Answer Man: Your Tour Guide to Bygone Ferries

What is the story behind the street in Clinton referred to as Old Alexandria Ferry Road? Was there ever a ferry near there across the Potomac?

-- Steve Brown, Upper Marlboro

Yes, indeed. There was a time when the local riparian landscape was chock-full of ferry landings. The boats are gone from Prince George's County, but the names live on in streets such as Old Alexandria Ferry Road, Budds Ferry Place and Magruder Ferry Road (which isn't near the Potomac, but near the Patuxent in Brandywine).

Lee Rogers is a history buff from Temple Hills who is fascinated by the ferries that used to ply the rivers. "The last ferry that I know of from Prince George's was on Fox Point around Oxon Creek," he told Answer Man. "That was around 1914."

Fox Point isn't named for the critter but for Capt. Joseph Fox who ran a sidewheeler named the Alice Fox from there. A ferry also ran from the north side of Oxon Creek, from Marbury Point, which is now part of Blue Plains.

"During Prohibition, the landing was used for landing spirits during the night," Lee said.

Washington's main ferry landing was on Seventh Street SW, where passengers could take a boat to King Street in Alexandria. There was once a ferry that left from the foot of Wisconsin Avenue and chugged past Roosevelt Island and over to Northern Virginia. Other ferries went to Virginia from Fort Foote at Swann Creek and from the end of Gieseboro Road. There was even a ferry that took B&O Railroad trains across the Potomac.

Today, Old Alexandria Ferry Road is landlocked, ending about six miles short of the Potomac. That's because over the years the land there was subdivided, built up and criss-crossed with other roads.

The ferries were used to transport goods and carry people who had business on the other side of the river. They were also used by daytrippers eager to escape the city heat. Excursions went to places such as Mount Vernon and Marshall Hall.

As Answer Man was researching Washington's ferries he came across a round-up of river-related news published in The Post in 1878. In the middle was this sad paragraph: