After seeing a gorgeous rendering of the famous Natural Bridge of Virginia by David Johnson in 1860, and hearing stories of the Jefferson-Fry map created by Thomas Jefferson’s surveyor father, and his colleague, I’ve long wanted to visit with the kids. Today was the day!
Our descent took us nearly 300 feet down into a canyon that was about 100 feet wide.
Walking down a path that meandered through lovely greenery near a rippling stream and trickling waterfalls, we turned a corner and suddenly beheld the 215 feet high natural arch made of limestone.
Created by a cataclysmic event, the arch obviously formed quickly during the Great Flood of Noah’s time. 😉
1750 GEORGE WASHINGTON AND PETER JEFFERSON SURVEY
While standing at this spot near the bridge, and looking at the opposite wall across the creek, one can see the initials GW.
According to legend, George Washington carved these initials into the rock, when he assisted Peter Jefferson in surveying this area in 1750.
Their job was to survey the Old Indian Trail, a major north-south road that has served wildlife, Native Americans, and early settlers.
(Today I-81 runs nearby, allowing the area to return to a quieter past.)
1767 THOMAS JEFFERSON PUBLICATION AND PURCHASE
After Thomas Jefferson visited the Natural Bridge of Virginia in 1767, he described it in his infamous Notes on the State of Virginia as: most sublime of Nature’s works.
In 1774, Jefferson bought its 157 acres at the Surveyor General’s Office in Williamsburg, from King George III of England, for 20 shillings.
1781 FRENCH SOLDIERS’ PUBLICATIONS
Then around 1781, officers and engineers of the French General Comte de Rochambeau’s command arrived to survey the bridge as well.
While copious notes and descriptions returned with them to Paris where numerous artistic renderings were made, one of Rochambeau’s party even wrote a book where some renderings were included.
1803 JEFFERSON’S VISION
In 1803, Jefferson had a two-room log cabin built at the top of the hill, where the current hotel now stands.
Since Natural Bridge was eighty miles from his Monticello home, Jefferson paid frequent visits while at his Poplar Forest estate, which was only forty miles from the natural wonder.
When he entertained guests from America and Europe at Monticello or Washington DC, he encouraged them to venture southwest to Natural Bridge.
Many did travel here and stayed in the cabin, recording their names and observations in the ledger he left for record keeping.
In 1815, Jefferson wrote of Natural Bridge: I view it in some degree as a public trust, and would on no consideration permit the bridge to be injured, defaced, or masked from public view.
When Jefferson died in 1826, his private ownership fell to family heirs until, in 1835, they sold the land to a Joel Lackland for $1500.
GEOLOGICALLY RICH AREA
Since it’s such a geologically rich area, I pointed out many features to my kids, especially my daughter who will soon begin a geology class at college.
SALT PETER FOR GUN POWDER
Jefferson leased this cave for the purpose of mining salt peter to produce gun powder.
LACE WATERFALLS
Lace Falls is a quiet spot with an overlook of benches, where Cedar Creek tumbles fifty feet towards the James River a mile away, from its origin in the Alleghany Mountains 180 miles away.
LOST RIVER
At this spot on the hike we could hear rushing waters which came from inside this cave.
Appropriately dubbed the Lost River, the subterranean river’s origin and route has eluded many a scientist despite much testing.
For quite some time we quietly sat in this spot to watch this heron catch and eat his lunch…
NATURAL WONDER OF THE WORLD
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, it was listed as one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World.
1820s JOHN JAMES AUDUBON
I recollect that, while traveling in Virginia with a friend, he desired that I would go somewhat out of our intended route, to visit the renowned Rock Bridge of that State. My companion, who had passed over this natural bridge before, proposed a wager that he could lead me across it before I should be aware of its existence. It was early in April, and from the descriptions of this place which I had read, I felt confident that the Pewee Flycatcher must be about it. I accepted the proposal of my friend and trotted on, intent on proving to myself that, by constantly attending to one subject, a person must sooner or later become acquainted with it.
I listened to the notes of the different birds, which at intervals came to my ear, and at last had the satisfaction to distinguish those of the Pewee. I stopped my horse, to judge of the distance at which the bird might be, and a moment after told my friend that the bridge was short of a hundred yards from us, although it was impossible for us to see the spot itself. The surprise of my companion was great.
“How do you know this?” he asked; “for,” he continued, “you are correct.”
“Simply,” answered I, “because I hear the notes of the Pewee, and know that a cave, or a deep rocky creek, is at hand. -John James Audubon
1851 MOBY DICK
But soon the fore part of him rose from the water; for an instant his whole marbleized body formed a high arch, like Virginia’s Natural Bridge, and warningly waving his bannered flukes in the air, the grand god revealed himself, sounded, and went out of sight. –Moby Dick, written in 1851 by Herman Melville
CIVIL WAR SIGHTSEEING SPOT FOR SOLDIERS
In fact, during the Civil War, soldiers from both the North and South passed through and wrote down their amazements of the area in their journals.
After marching from Lexington to Lynchburg on June 14, 1864, a Union colonel wrote: We passed within three miles of the Natural Bridge. Officers were much disappointed by not being able to see it.
After the Lynchburg battle, a Confederate surgeon wrote: On the 23rd started on the march towards Lexington, and on the same day I got permission to visit or go by the Natural Bridge. … We had pointed out to us the letters G. Washington carved in stone, which were once quite plain, but time has nearly effaced the last vestige of them. … The story was that George Washington had climbed this ledge to the top. None of us tried this experiment, but we learned that Henry MacRae [of the regiment] … climbed to a very dangerous point, and finding he could not get to the top had to be rescued by a rope let down from above.
