Alexandria: The Ship “Fairfax” Sailing for Rio de Janerio in 1845

The site of Alexandria, like that of its neighboring port, Georgetown, was first mentioned by Captain John Smith in his History of Virginia. He described sailing up past the Alexandria site in 1608. Some dates have never been firmly established, but it is reasonable to believe that by 1656, ships from Holland and England were trading up the Potomac for cargoes of tobacco, corn, and furs; the latter bought from the Dong Indians.

In the middle of the seventeenth century, Charles II deeded the land in this part of Virginia to Robert Howsing, and the six thousand acres were later sold to John Alexander. He dispatched settlers to the site, called initially the Hunting Creek region, and by 1685 it had become an active port.

During the first quarter of the eighteenth century, only four American ports, New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Salem, exceeded in tonnage the exports of the area now called Alexandria. By 1745 wheat had replaced tobacco as the dominant crop, and flour from the port was sold to the Caribbean squadron of the British fleet.

Alexandria was an international port that was expected to overtake Philadelphia in terms of exports, but a variety of adverse forces began to impinge on the Potomac River trade. A yellow fever epidemic hit the city in 1803; the War of 1812 halted trading out of Alexandria, and gradually, by 1840 export receipts at Alexandria gave way to the rise of Baltimore. The final demise of Alexandria as a port came with the arrival of the railroads.

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