utward toward Richmond and
Annapolis and Charleston and Harrisburg, and that much action relating
to the Potomac must be sought in those cities, or is decided on
incidentally there by legislators, many of whose strongest interests may
lie along the James or the Susquehanna or the Ohio or other streams.

The fact that the capital of the United States, together with its
attendant metropolis, is located solidly within the Basin at the Fall
Line is of immense if problematic significance. For one thing, it
fosters a concentrated Federal interest in the Potomac and the Potomac
region, in both esthetic and utilitarian terms and at both legislative
and administrative levels, which have led to some special amenities in
the way of parks and such things and to some Federal efforts to treat
the river in "model" terms, however these terms may have been defined at
various points. On the other hand, it has also led to a special concern
with the river on the part of the almost innumerable interest groups
that possess leverage in Washington, from wilderness conservationists to
industrial lobbyists, who exercise pulls in a number of different
directions.

And the presence of the capital has set up other special currents of
influence and sympathy that bypass normal political channels. Many Basin
towns and counties look more toward Washington for certain kinds of
action than toward their State agencies and legislatures. Federal
programs have long been active here close to the main-office sources of
expertise and cash, building up respect and trust through local agents,
and Basin Congressmen who hardly have to leave home to exercise their
legislative function have further strengthened these ties.

The metropolitan jurisdictions, especially, in many ways find more
common cause with one another and the Federal Government than with
communities and governing bodies elsewhere in their own States.
Politically, this sense of collective identity gets official expression
in the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, a regional body
which, like its counterparts in other urban conglomerations throughout
the country, is geared to work directly with the Federal Government in
dealing with its own regional problems rather than having to come at
Federal programs and agencies along the more lengthy traditional route
through the States. The implications of this new kind of alignment are
still a matter for debate and conjecture.

Other forces at