WASHINGTON — Thursday marks three years since the shutdown of the historic White’s Ferry.
The ferry, which runs between Poolesville in Montgomery County and Leesburg in Loudoun County, is the only transportation link between Maryland and Virginia on that section of the Potomac River.
The past three years have been back-and-forth, yet neither side appears any closer to getting the ferry service back up and running.
The owner of the ferry on the Maryland side and the land owner on the Virginia side just can’t agree with what’s fair.
White’s Ferry had been operating since before George Washington became president. By 2020 it had been in operation for 234 years. Then a Loudoun County judge ruled that the spot where the ferry had been docking all those years was not public land.
The law says you can’t park your boat on someone else’s property without permission. In addition to fighting over land, neither side could agree on fair compensation, resulting in the ferry service shutting down.
In 2021, real estate investor Chuck Kuhn purchased White’s Ferry. Kuhn was optimistic that he would be able to turn things around and come to an agreement with Libby Devlin, who owns Rockland Farm on the Virginia side.
But on Thursday, the third anniversary of White’s shutdown, the “Fair Access Committee for Western Montgomery County” issued a statement pushing for an agreement.
“This situation can only be resolved by government stepping in, leading and taking charge.” the committee said in their statement.
Despite not being able to come to a fair agreement, the committee still believes the ferry is “a vital aspect of our community, history, and culture, and we would dearly like to see it running again.”
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