Yes, although there were hopes that it would evolve into a commercial as well as a political center. There was a plan to build a canal linking the Potomac River, which Washington D.C. is situated on, with the upper Ohio River via a canal. It was hoped that Washington would become a major transshipment port because it is located about as far up the Potomac as seagoing ships could travel.
The canal was actually built as the Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) canal, and it was a pretty impressive piece of engineering. Unfortunately, it was a commercial failure. It had lots of locks and tunnels and was fairly slow to navigate, and most Midwesterners preferred the traditional Ohio Mississippi route, or the Erie Canal further north. Then, the Baltimore and Ohio railroad delivered the final blow by providing a much faster means of transportation between the Ohio river valley and the coast of Maryland. The railroad ended up buying the canal, in fact. (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chesapeake_and_Ohio_Canal) The failure of the canal and the fact that the main railroad went to Baltimore pretty much killed hopes for Washington becoming a major trade/commercial center in the 19th century.
