delivered the opinion of the court.
This is а suit brought by the United States in the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia to recover possession of a strip of land on the Potomac River front of the City of Alexandria. • Exсept an insignificant portion as to which no speci'al defence was made and which it is agreed may be disregarded, this strip lay below low water mark until it ivas filled in by the Unitеd States in 1910-1912 by dredging from the bottom of the river and depositing the material on the other side of a riprap wall built oii'the river bed. Act of June 25, 1910, c. 382, 36 Stat. 630, 639. Act of February 27, 1911, c. 166, 36 Stat. 933, 937. Thе United States enclosed the made land by fence at high water mark, but the defendant, the plaintiff in error, claiming title to the adjoining land inshore, destroyed the fence and took possession, whereupon this *62 action was brought. The defendant pleaded to the jurisdiction of the Court alleging that the land was not in the District but was part of Virginia. On this issue the Court found or ruled in favor of the plaintiff and afterwards did the same upon the general issue, a jury having been waived. Judgment for the plaintiff was affirmed by the Court of Appeals and the defendant took a writ of error .to bring the case to this Court.
A question is raised by the defendant in error as to the jurisdiction of this Court. The language of the Judicial Cоde, Act of March 3, 1911, c. 231, § 250, 36 Stat. 1087, 1159, is that any final judgment of the Court of Appeals may be reexamined “ First. In cases in which the jurisdiction of the trial court is in issue.” The words taken literally сover this case, but it is argued that they should be construed as similar words in § 238 concerning the District Courts are construed. In the latter instance, as is well known, they are confined tо the jurisdiction of the District Courts as courts of the United States. But the jurisdiction of the District Courts is a limited jurisdiction based upon statutory grounds, and therefore the words of § 238 naturally enough were confined to what always is the first question in a case before them. The Supreme Court of the District of Columbia on the other hand is a court of general jurisdiction, and whether or not the clause of § 250 was suggested by the earlier one, we see no sufficient justification for denying to it the scope that it must have if it is given its natural sense. Thе plea to the jurisdiction raises the question clearly, and a certificate would add nothing to what the record shows.
We are not prepared to say that thе judgment before us was not
“
otherwise reviewable ” on the question of the boundary between the United States and Virginia, so far as the defendant drew in question the construction, of the Revised Statutes relating to the District of Columbia, § 1, June 22, 1874, hereafter discussed. We should hesi
*63
tate to apply the decision in
American Security & Trust Co.
v.
District of Columbia,
The question of the jurisdiction of the trial Court and that of the merits very nearly coalesce, as the original, title, at least, of Maryland and. its- jurisdiction were founded upon the same facts, and as the United States succeeded to the rights of Marylаnd by the grant of the District completed in 1791. That the original title of Maryland extended at least to low water mark on the Virginia side it now is too late to deny, in -view of the deсisions in
Maryland
v.
West Virginia,
The original statе of things was not changed by the grant of Virginia and the regrant by the United States of the part of the District on the Virginia side. They at least did not enlarge the rights of that State. The cоmpact between Virginia and Maryland in 1785 also- seems to us to have no bearing upon the case. It says nothing
*64
about the boundary in terms. Without going into the history of the comрact or reciting it, we only need to remark that it was a regulation of commerce, and while with a view to opening up a route to the West it provided in Article 6 thаt the Potomac should be considered as a common highway for the purposes of navigation and commerce to the citizens of Virginia and Maryland, and in Article 7 gave the citizens of each State full property in the shores of the river adjoining their lands and the privilege of carrying out wharves, &c., with a common right of fishing, it left the question of boundary open to long continued disputes. It may be laid on one side even if it ever was in force in the District of Columbia, which has been denied on the ground that the compact was abrogated so far as it affected this land by the grant of Virginia and was not revived by the grant of the United States.
Evans
v.
United States,
31 App. D. C. 544, 550. See
Georgetown
v.
Alexandria Canal Co.,
The question of boundary remaining opеn was submitted to arbitration which ended in an award accepted by the parties in 1878. But that was an arbitration between the two States and did not purport to affect thе boundary of the District. The assent of the United States did not enlarge its scope. Act of March 3, 1879, c. 196, 20 Stat. 481. It is said- that as the submission was to an ascertainment of the true boundary line the award must be taken to have determined it, but the question was confined to the boundary between the States as they then were7and whatever may be the forcе of the argument that the same principle ought to govern here, it was met and could not be adjudicated. Further discussion on this point is not needed. The award fixed low wаter mark on the Virginia side as the boundary, and is only material if at all as suggesting a claim that the low water line should be drawn from headland to headland and in that *65 way include the indentation or cove where the United States has filled. But we know of no reason for construing the charter to Lord Baltimore as so limited or that to Howsing as importing such á rule.
The only important aspect of the last.mentioned suggestion is in connection with a claim of prescriptive right. The land behind the filling of the United States is made land, and the fillings on the Alexandria side go below the original low water mark. In this case, however, there is no attempt to disturb the long maintained possession of such extensions whether originally warranted or not. The only question before us is of the rights of the United States to fill land that hitherto has been under water. The plaintiff in error seeks to exclude it by fоrce of what already has been done and the claims of right that have been made in connection with it. If the taking possession of land were under a deed purрorting to convey more than the portion actually occupied, no doubt, within reasonable limits, the sovereign power might give to it the effect of adverse possession of the whole, as against other subjects of the same power.
Montoya
v.
Gonzales,
Finally, on the other hand, the Revised Statutes relating to the District of Columbia, June 22, 1874, § 1, de
*66
scribe.-the District as “including the river Potomac in its сourse through the District,” which imports an assertion by Congress that the title of the United States embraces the whole river bed; and the jurisdiction of tbe District over the river seems to have been exerciseii without dispute. For cases that have reached the' reports see
Alexandria Canal Railroad & Bridge Co.
v.
District of Columbia,
It may happen that such filling as is done in this case will interrupt previously existing access to the water front. But that does not affect the right of the United States to possession of the land. What other rights, if any, the plaintiff- iff error may have does not concern us now.
Judgment affirmed.