- Thomas Jefferson, Note on the State of Virginia
Walking down 147 steps
along a tiny creek cascading gradually to a larger bed, huge rocks surround us
on both sides. I wondered in anticipation, where is this Natural Wonder? And
suddenly, the view opens and a grey mammoth arch covered with lush green vegetation
rises out of the wet and moss-covered rock. Rivulets of water flow on all sides
of the limestone, constantly carving.
The 215 ft. high arch is 55
ft. taller than Niagara Falls, 40 ft. thick, 100 ft. wide and spans 90 ft.
above the massive walls, a bridge made of Ordovician rock, 500 million years
old. The tool was water and the master who carved this masterpiece 1160 ft.
above sea level was a simple mountain stream, Cedar Creek.
The Monacan Indians, an
eastern Siouan nation, who lived in the area for an estimated 10,000 years
called the Natural Bridge, “Mohomony,” “The Bridge of God,” or “Great Mystery.”
Monacan men, women, and children, chased by enemies, came upon a big chasm
between two large boulders and, faced with impending doom, closed their eyes
and prayed. When Monacan warriors opened their eyes, a narrow rock bridge had
materialized across the gorge and they were able to fight the chasing enemy
crossing the Natural Bridge.
Four centuries ago,
Monacans could be found in the western and central parts of Virginia, as “far
west as the Falls of Richmond, where John Smith and his Jamestown settlers
first made contact with the tribe.” There are still 1,400 Monacans living in
Virginia in the Bear Mountain region near Lynchburg.
Nobody claimed the
157-acre close to Glasgow, Virginia, because it was not suitable for
agriculture. Following a trail on
horseback from Paxson’s Tavern in nearby Glasgow, Thomas Jefferson discovered
on August 23, 1767 the massive Natural Bridge.
He purchased the land on July 5, 1774 from King George III for the
modest sum of $160.
In 1927 a surveyors cross still
visible today was found with the initials “GW” on a stone in Cedar Creek. The story goes that George Washington, an
athletic teenager, had scaled the south face of the Natural Bridge and carved
his initials there.
The teen George Washington
was working for Colonel Peter Jackson, Thomas Jefferson’s father, who was
surveying the Indian trail, called “Big Path” to measure the boundaries of the
157-acre plot. The representative of the King of England, Lord Fairfax of
Cameron, ordered the survey in 1750 in order to build a road between Winchester
and Buchanan.
George Washington never
mentioned this story in his writings, nor is the survey work formally
documented. They are mentioned in written descriptions dating back to 1830s.
Jefferson visited his
property during annual “rambles;” there are four records of such visits. A two
story stone and log cabin was built in 1803 on the present day location of the
Natural Bridge Hotel. Jefferson and his
guests would stay in this cabin during his visits, tended by Patrick Henry and
his wife Luisa. There was a visitor guest book but was lost in the cabin fire
in 1845. According to museum archives, some of the more famous visitors were: James Monroe (fifth President), Andrew Jackson
(seventh President), Martin Van Buren (eighth President), John Marshall (fourth
Chief Justice), Henry Clay (Kentucky statesman), Daniel Boone (American pioneer
and explorer), and Sam Houston (first Governor of Texas).
Jefferson owned the
Natural Bridge until his death in 1826, leaving it to his family. He used the
caves around the bridge for the production of ammunition during the war. There
is plenty of saltpeter (potassium nitrate) in the caves, the essential
ingredient for black gun powder (75% potassium nitrate, 15% charcoal, and 10%
sulphur). However, in 1816, Jefferson provided a custodian for its natural preservation,
leasing the land to Patrick Henry, a man freed from slavery. With his wife
Luisa, Patrick Henry farmed 10 acres, watched for vandals and trespassers, took
care of Jefferson’s cabin, and cared for Jefferson’s many guests.
John Sallings, who built a
cabin and settled in the area after six years of Indian captivity, was “probably
the first white man to see the bridge.” From his diary, “Colonel John Buchanan
preserved the earliest record of the bridge.” (Museum Archives)
In 1834, the second owner
of the bridge, Capt. Lackland, devised a hexagonal iron cage, hoisted up and
down by strong men working a hand windlass that carried courageous individuals
up to view the bridge from the air for the price of $1 per person.
The subterranean waters have
carved caves; some were enlarged by human blasting to the size of caverns and to
a passable depth of 350 ft. Long time ago, the bridge was actually the ceiling
of a large cavern that had collapsed, resulting in the breathtaking bridge that
we see today.
In 1812, workmen who
extracted nitrate from the Saltpeter Cave heard the water rumblings of the Lost
River. They blasted an opening to allow the Lost River to flow outward. Several
attempts to locate the source of the underground water have been made with
color dyes and flotation devices, all unsuccessful.
I likened the visually
arresting and breathtaking experience of seeing the Natural Bridge for the
first time to being mesmerized by the thundering Niagara Falls, another majestic
monument built by the power of nature and God. As Dr. Norman Vincent Peale
said, it “is something like being in a church. It almost brings tears to your
eyes.”
Cedar Creek, originating
180 miles away in the Allegheny Mountains, plunging 50 feet in an elegant plume
of white water, the Lace Waterfalls, flows under the Natural Bridge and then
joins the James River a mile away. The water seems deceptively calm, lazy, and
cool on my bare feet. Rev. Andrew Reed described it so poetically in 1835, “Oh,
it is sublime – so strong and yet so elegant – springing from earth and bathing
its head in heaven.”
The town of Lexington,
just north of the Natural Bridge, was the recruiting area for the southern army
during the Civil War. One of the nation’s first tourist attractions, during the
Civil War both Union and Confederate officers saw the Natural Bridge and
recorded their impressions in letters and public documents.
The bridge was so famous
that Confederates detoured from their march after the Battle of Lynchburg to
see it. Assistant Surgeon Thomas Fanning Wood of the 3rd North
Carolina Infantry wrote in his memoirs, “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 the 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.” (Museum
Archives)
Some of General David
Hunter’s Union troops, after burning down the Virginia Military Institute in
Lexington, while marching to Lynchburg, detoured to see and cross the famous Bridge.
“We passed within three
miles of the Natural Bridge. Officers were much disappointed by not being able
to see it. Lieutenant Meigs and some others did go by that road.” (Museum
Archives)
The Natural Bridge was
also used as a “shot tower” during the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. To
make a “shot,” molten lead was dropped through a copper sieve high above a pool
of water, in this case, the Cedar Creek. Surface tension and the cooling of droplets as
they fell created a perfect ball which cooled in the water below. Different
size holes in the sieve created different size balls.
Today, the Lee Highway,
U.S. Route 11, still crosses over the ultimate natural wonder bridge, painted,
drawn, visited, and admired by many, and built by the erosive power of water
over millions of years.
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