1828

• Work begins July 4 on the Chesapeake & Ohio (C&O) Canal to connect Washington, D.C. to the Ohio River. President Adams turns the first spade of soil to start a race across the Alleghenies between the B&O Railroad and the C&O canal.

1830

• It was "not uncommon to pull 4,000 shad or 300,000 herring in one seine haul... [or] 450 rockfish with an average weight of sixty pounds. . . . Hundreds of sturgeon . . . on a single night [on the Potomac] near the US Arsenal in Washington."

1833

• The silt from land runoff threatens navigation of the Potomac River.

1840

• The oyster canning industry begins in Baltimore.

1845

• The United States Naval Academy opens in Annapolis, Maryland.