White's Ferry - car carrier ferry boat broke loose from cable & amp; current took ferry & amp; passengers downstream pic.twitter.com/7tN0TF5KOr
— Pete Piringer (@mcfrsPIO) December 4, 2015U/D - White's Ferry - All civilians safely on land & walking back to parking lot while Ferry being pushed to shore pic.twitter.com/4aSuHEIzDA
— Pete Piringer (@mcfrsPIO) December 4, 2015
WASHINGTON — A Montgomery County ferry broke free from its cable Friday afternoon with a dozen cars and passengers on board.
The White’s Ferry car carrier broke loose from its cable at about 3 p.m. Friday, and the current carried the boat down the Potomac River. There were 12 cars on the ferry at the time, says Montgomery County Fire & Rescue Spokesman Pete Piringer.
Other boats came to the rescue and pulled the boat — named after the confederate Civil War leader Gen. Jubal A. Early — to shore, where it was secured.
All passengers and pedestrians were removed from the boat and there were no injuries, Piringer says. The ferry stopped running Friday following the incident so that cable could be fixed.
It’s still unclear what caused the ferry to break off the cable, which the boat follows across the Potomac.
White’s Ferry carries passengers from Whites Ferry Road in Montgomery County, Maryland, to Whites Ferry Road in Loudoun County, Virginia. It costs cars $5 to go one way or $8 for a round trip. It is one of the last of 100 ferries that used to operate on the Potomac River, according to Poolesville, Maryland’s website.
