Fort Washington as it was in the 1960s. In 1807 a fort near this location was started and it was completed in 1809 but was considered a poor design in the wrong place as there was high ground behind it. It was named Fort Warburton and was on Warberton or Digges’ point, depending on who was involved. In August 1814 a British fleet sailed up the Potomac River and anchored just out of range of the fort’s guns. The fort was manned by 49 men but there were 26 cannons ranging in size from 50 pounders to 6 pounders. There was also 3,000 pounds of gun powder on hand. The British bomb vessels started to lob shells at the fort and the American commander evacuated the fort and blew up the gun powder, and a presumably lot of the fort too, on the 17 August 1814. The British sailed up to Alexandria and in exchanged for not burning the place down got supplies and other things Washington City had very recently been taken over by the British who had burnt government building but not private houses. The White House had been burnt to the ground before the British moved on.A group of officers from one of the Bowater ships had rented a car and gone on a tour of historic places and arrived here after dark on a warm summer evening. The car park was full of cars with teen age courting couples inside. One of the older men got out of the car and blew the car horn and shouted “When I find which car my daughter is in, there is going to be one sorry young man.” The ensuing demolition derby of cars trying to get away must have surprised the insurance companies the next day. Jolly Jack ashore had an odd sense of humour.