Pwenner: The areas of Lovettsville and Brunswick were originally known as “The German Crossing” because German settlers migrated from York and Lancaster counties in Pennsylvania ("Pennsylvania Dutch" or "Deutsch") to the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia. This is an early photo of the ferry sometime in the mid- to late-19th Century. In the 1720s trader Abraham Pennington became the first permanent settler and established a ferry across the Potomac River in 1731. The ferry continued operating well into t...

2021-10-24T16:46:56Z

The areas of Lovettsville and Brunswick were originally known as “The German Crossing” because German settlers migrated from York and Lancaster counties in Pennsylvania ("Pennsylvania Dutch" or "Deutsch") to the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia. This is an early photo of the ferry sometime in the mid- to late-19th Century. In the 1720s trader Abraham Pennington became the first permanent settler and established a ferry across the Potomac River in 1731. The ferry continued operating well into t...

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== Summary ==
The areas of Lovettsville and Brunswick were originally known as “The German Crossing” because German settlers migrated from York and Lancaster counties in Pennsylvania ("Pennsylvania Dutch" or "Deutsch") to the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia.

This is an early photo of the ferry sometime in the mid- to late-19th Century.
In the 1720s trader Abraham Pennington became the first permanent settler and established a ferry across the Potomac River in 1731. The ferry continued operating well into the nineteenth century when they were run by the Waltman and Wenner families.

The crossing became a key migration route for thousands of settlers.

(Photo and information courtesy of the MD Department of Transportation)

[[Category:Smoketown Beginnings]]

File:German Crossing Ferry.bmp - Revision history