Patuxent River
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The Patuxent River is a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay in the state of Maryland. Its source is located in the hills of the Maryland Piedmont near the intersection of four counties - Howard, Frederick, Montgomery and Carroll. Flowing in a generally southward direction, the Patuxent crosses the heavily urbanized corridor between Baltimore and Washington, D.C. and opens up into a navigable estuary near the town of Deep Landing in Calvert County, Maryland, finding the Chesapeake Bay about thirty miles later.
The river marks the boundary between Montgomery, Prince George's, Charles and St. Mary's Counties on the west and Howard, Anne Arundel, and Calvert Counties on the east.
There are three main river drainages for central Maryland. The Potomac River to the west passing through Washington D.C., the Patapsco River to the east passing through Baltimore, and the Patuxent River in the middle.
The Middle Patuxent River and the Little Patuxent River, each respectively further to the east of the main river, and each respectively smaller in water flow, join the main branch before reaching Deep Landing. The Middle Patuxent flows through the middle of Howard County, while the Little Patuxent flows through the middle of Columbia, Maryland forming the source of its downtown urban lake.
There are two major dams on the Patuxent River and thus two lakes. These lakes provide drinking water for millions in central Maryland and are owned and operated by the WSSC. The upper damn is called Brighton Damn and the lower damn is called Rocky Gorge, both along the Howard and Montgomery county border, where a relatively deep and narrow valley exists in the otherwise Piedmont surrounding terrain.