The Ashley River, as seen from
Brittlebank Park.
Map of the Charleston Harbor watershed showing Ashley River.
The
Ashley River is a blackwater / tidal river in
South
Carolina
, rising from
the Wassamassaw and Great Cypress Swamps in Western Berkeley
County. It consolidates its main channel about 5 miles west
of Summerville, widening into a brackish, tidal estuary just south
of Fort Dorchester.
The much wider Ashley joins the Cooper
River
in Charleston
to form the Charleston Harbor before discharging
into the Atlantic
Ocean
, or, as South Carolinians like to say, 'the Ashley
River joins the Cooper River to form the Atlantic
Ocean.'
The river was named for
Anthony Ashley
Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury and chief
Lord Proprietor of the
Carolina Colony.
Charleston was founded
on the western bank of the Ashley in 1670 (at Charles Towne
Landing
), before moving across to its current peninsular
location ten years later.
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