White’s Ferry, a historic Potomac River crossing between Montgomery County, Maryland, and Loudoun County, Virginia, has remained closed since December 28, 2020, due to an unresolved dispute over landing rights on the Virginia side of the river.
The closure followed a Loudoun County Circuit Court ruling that no public landing exists at the Virginia shoreline, preventing the ferry from legally docking there. Since then, multiple efforts by ferry owners, local governments, and the State of Maryland to resolve the dispute and restore service have failed to produce a binding agreement.
In April 2025, Montgomery County, the Town of Poolesville, and state officials described what they called a final effort to reopen the ferry, offering a $3 million financial incentive to the ferry operator, Potomac Crossing LLC, and Virginia landowner Rockland Farm LLC. The proposal required a signed agreement by July 1, 2026, along with a firm reopening date and a plan for how the funds would be used for property rights, equipment, or capital improvements. The incentive package included $1.5 million from the State of Maryland’s FY26 budget and $1.5 million from Montgomery County, with participation from Poolesville. That deadline has since passed without an agreement…