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Opinion of the Court
Chief Justice Rehnquist delivered the opinion of the Court.
Invoking this Court's original jurisdiction, the Commonwealth of Virginia seeks a declaration that it has a right to withdraw water from the Potomac River and to construct improvements appurtenant to the Virginia shore free from regulation by the State of Maryland. We granted Virginia leave to file a complaint, 530 U. S. 1201 (2000), and referred the action to a Special Master, 531 U. S. 922 (2001). The Special Master filed a Report recommending that we grant the relief sought by Virginia. Maryland has filed exceptions to that Report.
Rising in the Appalachian Highlands of Maryland and West Virginia, the Potomac River (River) flows nearly 400 miles before emptying into Chesapeake Bay. For the lower part of its course, it forms the boundary between Maryland and the District of Columbia on the north, and West Virginia and Virginia on the south.
Control of the River has been disputed for nearly 400 years. In the 17th century, both Maryland and Virginia laid claim to the River pursuant to conflicting royal charters issued by different British monarchs. See Maryland v. West Virginia, 217 U. S. 1, 24-29 (1910); Morris v. United States, 174 U. S. 196, 223-225 (1899).
Virginia traced her claim primarily to the 1609 charter issued by King James I to the London Company, and to a 1688 patent for Virginia's Northern Neck, issued by King James II to Lord Thomas Culpeper. West Virginia, supra, at 28-29; Morris, 174 U. S., at 223-224. Both the 1609 charter and the 1688 patent included the entire Potomac River. Id., at 223. Maryland relied on the charter of 1632 from King Charles I to Lord Baltimore, which also included the Potomac River, although the precise scope of the grant remained in dispute. West Virginia, supra, at 20, 24-25; Morris, supra, at 223-225. In her Constitution of 1776, Virginia ceded ownership of the River to Maryland to the extent the
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