In recent posts I’ve listed examples of state and local governments leveraging the geography of their physical borders. They’ve generated tax revenue from outsiders who had no electoral standing to challenge it. For instance, I discussed situations found in the Southwick Jog of Massachusetts and the interstate highway traveling through northern Delaware.
However, every once in awhile the tables are turned. In these rare instances private citizens use geography to stick it to the government instead. That’s exactly what happened in Colonial Beach, Virginia.
A Fortunate Geographic Placement
A whole confluence of events merged in Colonial Beach in the middle of the 20th Century. It’s necessary to understand a little of the geography and the history of this location to truly appreciate the situation.
A large urban population grew along the Potomac River where the coastal plain met the fall line of the Piedmont. This formed Washington, DC, the capital of the United States. City dwellers needed a break from sweltering summer heat and a little time away from the crowds. But their choices were limited to the transportation available to them at the time. Steamships became a great option for this river town.
Fortunately a wonderful mile-long sandy beach sat just 65 miles downstream on Virginia’s Northern Neck. Developers realized the potential. They built hotels, platted streets and sold lots for summer cottages. They named the whole enterprise Colonial Beach. Urbanites could ride the steamships downriver, relax for a week on the beach and the boardwalk, and sail home refreshed.
Reinvention
Things began to change with the automobile. Road networks improved and expanded. Colonial Beach continued to remain popular throughout the first half of the 20th Century particularly as a weekend destination. Nonetheless new roads opened numerous additional choices to Washington tourists.
So the end was soon in sight. Maryland dreamed of a bridge across the middle of Chesapeake Bay to connect Annapolis with the Eastern Shore. That finally happened in 1952 after years of planning and construction. Washingtonians could now drive directly to”real” beaches along the Atlantic coasts of Maryland and Delaware. Could some silly sandbar along the river ever hope to compete?
Then Colonial Beach’s hoteliers and entrepreneurs struck upon a brilliant idea. They realized a simple fact (that I’ve discussed before). Notably, the state of Maryland owned this stretch of the Potomac River outright. It wasn’t split down the middle like typical river borders. They also knew that Maryland had a more permissive outlook on social issues than their conservative neighbors in Virginia. Appropriate to this situation, Maryland allowed slot machine gambling and the sale of alcoholic beverages by the the glass. So in 1949 the entrepreneurs of Colonial Beach began erecting piers into the river. At the end of the piers they built casinos. All of them were accessible from Virginia but technically they were not part of Virginia.
Boom and Bust
Virginia, as one can imagine, took a dim view of this development. Not only was this an affront to their moral outlook but it lacked any standing to tax the resulting gambling revenue. All those activities took place above Maryland waters. Colonial Beach exploded in popularity. People called it “Las Vegas on the Potomac” and well-heeled crowds filled the hotels and paraded down the boardwalk.
There is an anecdote, probably apocryphal, about Virginia’s attempt to halt the gambling on their doorstep. It falls into the category of “don’t necessarily believe everything you read on the Internet”. However, it’s amusing so I’ll repeat it [original source no longer available]:
“At one time the State of Virginia said that since the pier to the casino was attached to Virginia that the gambling was illegal. The owners of the casinos solved the problem by sawing a break in the pier, therefore severing the connection to Virginia. Problem solved.”
The party finally ended about ten years later. Virginia convinced Maryland to change its statutes to outlawed riverfront gambling in 1958. Colonial Beach faded into obscurity. Half a century later it may only now be recovering.
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