Potomac River crossing
E935964
The Potomac River crossing at Ball's Bluff was a key Civil War ford and ferry point where Union troops attempted a hazardous river passage that led to the Battle of Ball's Bluff in 1861.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Potomac River crossing canonical | 1 |
| Potomac River crossing at Boteler’s Ford | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T11596753 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Potomac River crossing Context triple: [Battle of Ball's Bluff, involves, Potomac River crossing]
-
A.
Clara Barton Parkway Potomac River crossing
Clara Barton Parkway Potomac River crossing is a roadway bridge that carries the Clara Barton Parkway across the Potomac River as part of the network of approaches into Washington, D.C.
-
B.
Union Bridge, Maryland
Union Bridge, Maryland is a small historic town in Carroll County known for its railroad heritage and rural community character.
-
C.
Rockville Bridge
Rockville Bridge is a historic Pennsylvania railroad bridge renowned as one of the longest stone masonry arch bridges in the world.
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D.
Severn River Bridge
The Severn River Bridge is a major roadway bridge in Maryland that carries U.S. Route 50/301 across the Severn River near Annapolis, serving as a key transportation link between the Baltimore–Washington area and Maryland’s Eastern Shore.
-
E.
Cabin John Bridge
Cabin John Bridge is a historic stone arch bridge in Maryland that carries traffic across Cabin John Creek near the Potomac River just outside Washington, D.C.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Potomac River crossing Target entity description: The Potomac River crossing at Ball's Bluff was a key Civil War ford and ferry point where Union troops attempted a hazardous river passage that led to the Battle of Ball's Bluff in 1861.
-
A.
Clara Barton Parkway Potomac River crossing
Clara Barton Parkway Potomac River crossing is a roadway bridge that carries the Clara Barton Parkway across the Potomac River as part of the network of approaches into Washington, D.C.
-
B.
Union Bridge, Maryland
Union Bridge, Maryland is a small historic town in Carroll County known for its railroad heritage and rural community character.
-
C.
Rockville Bridge
Rockville Bridge is a historic Pennsylvania railroad bridge renowned as one of the longest stone masonry arch bridges in the world.
-
D.
Severn River Bridge
The Severn River Bridge is a major roadway bridge in Maryland that carries U.S. Route 50/301 across the Severn River near Annapolis, serving as a key transportation link between the Baltimore–Washington area and Maryland’s Eastern Shore.
-
E.
Cabin John Bridge
Cabin John Bridge is a historic stone arch bridge in Maryland that carries traffic across Cabin John Creek near the Potomac River just outside Washington, D.C.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (29)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
historic site
ⓘ
river crossing ⓘ |
| associatedWithEvent | Battle of Ball's Bluff ⓘ |
| associatedWithYear | 1861 ⓘ |
| country |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| currentStatus | historic Civil War site ⓘ |
| faces | Maryland shore of the Potomac River ⓘ |
| functionedAs | military crossing point ⓘ |
| locatedIn |
Loudoun County, Virginia
ⓘ
Virginia ⓘ |
| locatedNear |
Ball's Bluff
ⓘ
linked to:
Battle of Ball's Bluff
Leesburg, Virginia ⓘ
linked to:
Leesburg
|
| locatedOn | Potomac River ⓘ |
| notableFor | role in Union defeat at Battle of Ball's Bluff ⓘ |
| partOf |
Ball's Bluff Battlefield and National Cemetery historic landscape
ⓘ
linked to:
Ball's Bluff Battlefield Regional Park
Ball's Bluff Battlefield area ⓘ
linked to:
Ball's Bluff Battlefield Regional Park
|
| riskCharacteristic | hazardous river passage ⓘ |
| strategicRole |
access route from Maryland into Virginia
ⓘ
approach to Leesburg, Virginia ⓘ |
| terrainFeature |
narrow river corridor
ⓘ
steep bluff on Virginia side ⓘ |
| timePeriod | early Civil War period ⓘ |
| usedAs |
ferry point
ⓘ
ford ⓘ |
| usedBy |
Confederate forces
ⓘ
Union Army ⓘ |
| usedDuring | American Civil War ⓘ |
| usedFor |
artillery and supply transport
ⓘ
troop movement ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Potomac River crossing Description of subject: The Potomac River crossing at Ball's Bluff was a key Civil War ford and ferry point where Union troops attempted a hazardous river passage that led to the Battle of Ball's Bluff in 1861.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: Potomac River crossing