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Natural Bridge: Virginia’s Unrivaled Natural Wonder
By Mary Ann Puglisi
After a descent into the ravine via a shuttle bus or on foot, youíll be taken by surprise; the size, shape, and chiseled walls of the massive nature-sculpted masterpiece are nothing less than awesome. The 215-foot tall Natural Bridge has attracted and captivated curious visitors since Thomas Jefferson purchased it.
Whether stopping by for a quick peak, one day, or settling in at the Natural Bridge Hotel for a few days, there are plenty of ways to enjoy a visit: see the Bridge; stroll along Cedar Creek Trail through the canyon to the Saltpeter Cave, Lost River, and Lace Waterfalls; chat with Interpreters in the Native American Living History Village; explore Professor Cline’s Haunted Monster Museum or Dinosaur Kingdom; tour the Natural Bridge Caverns, the deepest commercial caverns on the east coast; discover American and local history in the Natural Bridge Wax Museum and Factory; catch the Drama of Creation, the narrated musical and light show presented nightly beneath the Bridge; play a game of miniature golf; or just sit at the cafe by Cedar Creek, feed the rainbow trout, and reflect on the Bridge.
According to legend, the Monacan Indians discovered it when faced with a wide gorge while being pursued by the Powhatans and Shawnees. After praying to the Great Spirit for protection, this span across the gorge appeared as their escape route. Later, that path carried early settlers in their wagons, and civil war troops, as they traversed the Shenandoah Valley. Today it carries you in your car on U.S. 11 across the mountain gap.
The Monacans, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, the American Revolution, and the Civil War- over the years the Bridge has played its role in American History, and been designated a National Historic Landmark. In 1750 George Washington carved his initials in it when surveying the rock bridge for Lord Fairfax; in 1774 Thomas Jefferson purchased it from England, and soon after, the Europeans were the first to reproduce it.
Its development as a retreat began when Thomas Jefferson built a two-room log cabin with one room reserved for guests. He envisioned larger accommodations to house a flood of visitors. Both the lodging and the people came. In the 19th century the Natural Bridge became an important icon of the new worldís stunning and expansive natural beauty.
In a letter dated July 1, 1809, Jefferson referred to the Bridge as “undoubtedly one of the sublimest curiosities in nature.” From the late 1700s through the 1800s, images published in Italy, England and France brought European fame to the Bridge. Artists who never visited reproduced it in prints and paintings by copying from the work of others.
The Natural Bridge and Niagara Falls were two natural wonders that Europeans visited during this period. Of the two sights, the Bridge, without clear explanation of its formation, was the more mysterious. It became recognized as ìOne of the Seven Natural Wonders of the Modern Worldî.
Though Thomas Jefferson encouraged Americans to paint the Natural Bridge, American landscape painting was still undeveloped. But after his death, by the mid-19th century, American artists took on the challenge. Frederick Edwin Church and David Johnson of the famous Hudson River School of painters, both painted majestic scenes of the Bridge. Prints by Currier and Ives and others published in Harpers magazine finally brought images of it to Americans. Over the years, the railway dropped off thousands of visitors at Natural Bridge Station for a mountain retreat and to view the renowned “rock bridge.”
On The Trail To The Natural Bridge
Since the 1800s, everything but the Bridge has changed. Instead of riding a mule along a mule path, or being lowered from the top in an iron cage down the chasm, today youíll stroll along the handicapped accessible Cedar Creek Trail. The well-maintained trail offers tidbits of American history, a Native American Village, and besides the Bridge, other unusual quirks of nature such as Lost River, and a 1,500 year old arbor-vitae tree, thought to be one of the oldest of its kind in the world.
Hard to believe, but perhaps the harmless looking little Cedar Creek really did tunnel its way through a cave in the mountain, whose roof eventually collapsed to leave only the massive arch and the quiet, gentle creek flowing below. Geologists estimate the rock of the Bridge to be about 500 million years old; the erosion formation of the gorge and the arch from the stream drainage may have happened only a few million years ago. Mystery or no mystery, it’s quite an amazing sight. Throughout the day, each day and across each season its character changes with clouds, sunlight, bare trees of winter, summer foliage, fall colors, and winter snow and enormous dangling icicles.
Pass beneath it and imagine it as a shot tower. The Bridge played a part in the defeat of the British troops when it was used to make ammunition. From the top, men dribbled molten lead down through metal pipes to the creek bed. On its descent, the lead drops formed spherical shapes and hardened before falling into canvas that collected the shot when it hit the bottom.
Mesmerized by it, youíll turn and glance at the Bridge several times as you continue up the trail; round a bend, and it tucks itself away. Continue alongside the creek and youíll soon reach the Native American Living History Village where you can chat with Interpreters who are on-site from April through November. Journey back 300 years and learn how the local tribes lived, how deer, wild turkey, box turtle and elk provided ample food. Visit with Interpreters as they prepare meals, make baskets, and tools.
Not far upstream, Saltpeter Cave forms a large hole in the canyon wall. The cave is also the work of the past’s flowing water and erosion. It became a valuable resource for ammunition during the War of 1812 and the Civil War, 1861-65. Workmen made gunpowder from nitrates they mined from bird and bat droppings.
While working one day in 1812, miners heard water flowing behind the cliff wall. They blasted the rock and laid down a water main to carry water to the hoppers and kettles that extracted nitrate from the cave dirt. Never finding the path or source of their water, the underground stream became known as Lost River. No one has successfully traced the river’s origin and path through the mountain.
In the creek bed lie the remaining blocks of collapsed limestone. The sound of water gently flowing over the scattered boulders is tranquilizing. Eventually the rumble of tumbling water announces the upcoming view of Lace Waterfalls and the end of the trail, where the gorge narrows drastically. Time for a break and taking photos before retracing your steps back to the Bridge; then on to the Natural Bridge Caverns.
Through The Natural Bridge Caverns
The Natural Bridge Caverns tell another fascinating story of water, erosion and movement in the earth. Water moving from above the ground and through underground passages over millions of years has carved out large hollow caverns and internal landscapes in the mountain’s core. Rain and ground water with carbon dioxide content dissolve the rock. Geologists theorize that at some point Cedar Creek once flowed as high as the Natural Bridge and that the water table was high enough to submerge the caverns. As Cedar Creek cut down the valley floor the caverns slowly drained and deposits began to take form. Ten million years of chiseling, carving and draining have created today’s caverns. As caverns go, this cave is young with formations that are still growing. Very little above ground development in the area permits the natural downward flow of water and the growth of formations. For this reason, Natural Bridge Caverns is one of the east coast’s “active” caves.
The tour through the east’s deepest commercial cave takes visitors 350 feet deep (34 stories) into the earth. Straws, flowstone cascades, stalactites, stalagmites, draperies and pools have been growing for eons in the underground landscape. The sound of water dripping into pools and flowing invisibly through crevices is soothing.
The tour meanders by Mirror Lake, through the Waterfall Room. the Canyon Room, the Wishing Well Room, and the Colossal Dome Room, which houses one of the largest dome shaped masses of flowstone in the east. Depending on the amount of moisture in the cave, it can take 400 years for flowstone to grow a cubic inch. At the deepest point, you enter the Wishing Well Room. In the spring, salamanders breed in its pools. Besides salamanders, and hibernating bats glued to the cave ceilings, guides have sighted occasional cave crickets.
In the Canyon Room, where walls look typical of the walls of canyons out west, you see “Hanging Rock,” a large rock that fell from above and lodged itself between two canyon walls. Along with the spectacular landscape, the inspired, interactive, knowledgeable tour guides make for an entertaining journey through the caverns. The guides enthusiastically share the cave’s treasures, as well as local and natural history.
The Wax Museum and Factory
The scene switches from the drama of nature to the drama of American and local Shenandoah Valley history where the curtain opens on George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Confederate soldiers, General Lee, Daniel Boone, moonshiners, Jesus Christ and His Disciples at the Last Supper, all perched on narrated sets throughout the Wax Museum. It is owned and operated by the Dorfman family, the owners of wax museums throughout the country, and international suppliers of life-like figures. The museum tour offers a refreshing change from today’s high-tech electronic forms of entertainment, and an opportunity to appreciate a craft.
The museum entrance ticket includes a tour of the wax figure factory. An open workshop, exhibit and video detail the construction process. Unfinished body parts, hands, torsos and heads of famous people including Barbara Streisand and Elvis, and not-so-famous people are shelved and scattered about waiting to be pieced together and finished. It’s an unusual place, and impressive to see the hand-crafted process of building figures with an accurate resemblance to real-life people.
Donít miss the fun journey through the Haunted Monster Museum; and since the ticket includes admission to the Dinosaur Kingdom, have a wander through the forest where the life-like animated Dinosaurs roam. With its unique set of attractions, the Natural Bridge of Virginia offers visitors of all ages and interests a relaxing, entertaining and educational getaway in the Shenandoah Valley.
For more information on attractions and accommodations, call Natural Bridge of Virginia at 1-800-533-1410 or 540-291-2121, or email, ; http://www.naturalbridgeva.com.
Phone: 1-800-533-1410
Website: http://www.naturalbridgeva.com