Geography
The river source, 115 miles (185 km) from the Chesapeake, is in the hills of the Maryland Piedmont near the intersection of four counties - Howard, Frederick, Montgomery and Carroll, and only 0.6 mi (1.0 km) from Parr's Spring, the source of the south fork of the Patapsco River. Flowing in a generally southeastward direction, the Patuxent crosses the urbanized corridor between Baltimore and Washington, D.C., and opens up into a navigable tidal estuary near the colonial seaport of Queen Anne in Prince George's County, Maryland, just southeast of Bowie, Maryland, finding the Chesapeake Bay 52 miles (84 km) later. The fifty-two mile-long tidal estuary is never wider than 2.3 miles (3.7 km).
It 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. The Chesapeake estuary's deepest point, 130 feet (40 m) below sea level, is in the lower Patuxent.
The Little Patuxent River, the Middle Patuxent River, and the Western Branch (in Prince George's County) are the three largest tributaries. The Middle Patuxent flows into the Little Patuxent just upstream from the historic Savage Mill in Savage, Maryland. The Little Patuxent then joins the Patuxent just northeast of Bowie, Maryland. The Middle Patuxent flows 23.9 miles (38.5 km) through the middle of Howard County, while the Little Patuxent flows 37.9 miles (61.0 km) through northeast and southeast Howard County and western Anne Arundel County.
Read more about this topic: Patuxent River
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