0:02Just a few short years after winning America's independence,
0:07George Washington stood on this land and saw something that others didn't.
0:17He had a vision of a corridor that would connect the Americans on the eastern seaboard
0:23across the mountains with the frontier,
0:25so that people and goods could move from place to place, literally build a nation.
0:32But he recognized that this would take a huge engineering feat,
0:37the country's first infrastructure project.
0:41Here at Great Falls, the river was an obstacle.
0:45The water dropped through rocks and rapids nearly 80 feet and less than a mile.
0:50It would require the creation of a canal with locks so that boats could go up and down next to the rapids of the Potomac River.
1:00To build this canal was not simple.
1:03The Potomac separates Maryland and Virginia, and the only way to make it work would be to bring together officials and people from both of these states.
1:12They didn't necessarily agree, so Washington brought them together by literally inviting them to his home at Mount Vernon.
1:20And as the people sat down and ate together and drank together,
1:24they found new ways to make progress.
1:27At that Mount Vernon Compact, they forged new rules,
1:32not just for the construction, but for its operation,
1:35for the tolls that would pay for it.
1:37In so many ways, Washington set this country and infrastructure
1:43on a path that we've followed ever since.
1:49The nation went from building canals to railroads, the next great era of infrastructure.
1:56Electricity would require not just power plants, but an electrical grid. Telephones would require
2:01telephone lines. Cars required roads, highways that would literally span the nation. Airplanes
2:09It's required airports.
2:11Each generation has needed to renew Washington's vision.
2:16And here we are on the 250th anniversary of this country,
2:20and we're doing it again.
2:21We're building great infrastructure, data centers,
2:25so you can stream a movie, upload a photo, share a document,
2:30have a video meeting, or even use the power of AI.
2:36In January, we launched our community-first AI infrastructure initiative to address the
2:43concerns that are on people's minds in local communities where data centers are being built,
2:48like the cost of electricity, use of water, jobs, taxes, skills. And like that Mount Vernon
2:55compact forged by Washington, we sat down with county councils, with planners, with state
3:01governments to put in place rules that we pay our fair share and we put the community needs first.
3:10As we look to the future, we'll need infrastructure. Infrastructure that builds the next generation of
3:16opportunity and prosperity that solves practical problems for people. If we're going to build the
3:22next generation of prosperity, we're going to need to work together. We're going to need to make great
3:28investments and like George Washington and the Mount Vernon Compact, we too are
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