March 12: Natural Bridge

Debbie and I decided to take a quick little get-away, so went to Lexington Tuesday night, and spent the day Wednesday at Virginia's Natural Bridge. This is a great little park just over an hour south of where we live. The park features a very nice visitor's center, from which you descend 150 or so stairs into a gorge. There is a mile-long nature trail in the bottom of the gorge, following Cedar Creek. Thomas Jefferson purchased this entire area from King George III in 1774 for twenty shillings. George Washington surveyed the area, and supposedly carved his initials in the rock under the bridge. Here is a picture of the oldest aborvitae tree in the world, supposedly about 1600 years old. The photograph does not do justice to the size of this tree. According to the signs, this type of arborvitae grows only about 1 inch in diameter every 30 years.



Just a few yards from the bottom of the stairs leading from the visitor center is this view of the bridge. The bridge is 255 feet from the stream to the top of the arch. The arch is about 40 feet thick, and U.S. highway 11 runs across the top. The size of this arch is awesome. Click on this picture to enlarge it, and look at the size of the people at the bottom under the bridge.


Debbie took this one while I was standing on a rock in the middle of the stream.


The nature trail continues through the bridge, about a mile, to some very pretty cascades. Here is a picture of the creek in the background.


Along the way is a re-created Indian village, showing how the local Monacan Indians were living about the time Thomas Jefferson purchased the area. The indians built their chickees (huts) inside a stockade called a palisade.

Ain't she sweet?


This is the bridge from the back side. It's still a long way in the background. Wednesday night after dark, we came back and enjoyed a half-hour program starting at 9 pm. They light the bridge with various colored lights and play classical music, with a narration about the seven days of creation from Genesis. You can see the green benches we sat on, just behind Debbie. It wasn't quite as great as the fireworks at Epcot, but it was nice and relaxing nevertheless.

Admission to the bridge park also gets you admission to the Natural Bridge caverns, about a mile away. We visited the caverns also. All in all, it was a great little getaway trip. We'll have to do something like this again soon.