Jones Point

American Indians first frequented Jones Point to hunt and fish. The point is likely named for an early English settler. By the 1790s, military installations were established at Jones Point due to its strategic location on the Potomac River. The first cornerstone marking the boundary of the District of Columbia was erected on the point in 1791. A ropewalk, a facility for the production of rope, existed here in the 1830s, and a lighthouse was built in 1856 on the peninsula. During World War I the Virginia Shipbuilding Corporation established a shipyard here that employed 7,000 people and built nine freighters.