shorten URL using .htaccess not working

I have WordPress installed in a shared hosing account. WordPress is installed in mydomain.com/public/wordpress.
I use .htaccess file at mydomain.com to redirect to the WordPress folder which works fine.
Then I want to take the word “WordPress” out of my path, which I have been trying VERY UNSUCCESSFULLY to do using .htaccess.
It doesn’t “seem” like it should be this difficult, but… Can someone tell me what I have done incorrectly? I have the following .htaccess file in the WordPress folder:

Options +FollowSymlinks

# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ – [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^/(.*)$ /$1 [QSA,L]
</IfModule>

# END WordPress