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Natural Bridge
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Lexington – A Town Tailor-Made For Walking
These days, when you visit most towns and cities, you need your vehicle to get from place to place. Sidewalks may exist in downtown areas, but trying to get to other parts of town may involve walking along a busy street or highway, negotiating drainage ditches, overgrown roadsides and crossing multilane thoroughfares.  Lexington and Buena Vista offer a refreshing change. Both towns are extremely walking-friendly. Indeed, walking the streets of these Valley towns is the best way to see all there is to see, and to appreciate them. In fact, for the more adventurous walker, there is a trail along the old C&O Railroad roadbed linking Lexington and Buena Vista. 
Downtown Lexington undertook a major reconstruction project in the 1970s upgrading the streets, placing utility wires underground and putting in brick sidewalks. This investment by the city, concurrent with efforts by local preservation groups, acted as a catalyst for redevelopment, rehabilitation and adaptive use of old buildings in the downtown area. Today, Lexington is unusual in having a vibrant downtown area, with virtually no vacancies in streetfront space. The character of the downtown area changed over the past quarter-century. Traditional retailers such as department stores and hardware stores left downtown for the outskirts of town, and were replaced by more visitor-oriented shops such as art galleries, antique shops and shops featuring local and regional products. New restaurants offering a diversity of cuisines beckon the hungry tourist, and serve locals who work and even live in the downtown area.  Area governments have worked together to improve the corridors leading into Lexington, including the construction of new sidewalks or the inclusion of walks in new projects. The city has also rebuilt many of the old brick walks in the older residential neighborhoods adjacent to downtown, leveling and stabilizing the bricks. To start a walking tour of Lexington, begin with the Lexington Visitor Center at 106 East Washington Street. In addition to providing advice on what to see while in the area, the Visitor Center has an excellent map detailing several walking tours around the town. Shorter tours take one through Downtown Lexington and its 19th century commercial buildings, many still used as stores and shops as they were 150 years ago. You may add a walk through Washington and Lee University’s shaded, historic campus and on to the gothic buildings of Virginia Military Institute. Other walks wind through the residential streets of Lexington where 19th century homes sit among mature trees and gardens. Architectural buffs will appreciate the variety of styles seen on Lexington’s streets, ranging in vintage from the 1820s to the early 20th century, and encompassing Federal, Classic Revival, Gothic and Victorian styles. Buena Vista is also very accessible to walkers. Its wide sidewalks and tree-lined streets invite walkers to explore its downtown area. You may want to walk up the hill at the northeast end of the downtown area to see Southern Virginia University. Main Hall at SVU was once a boom-era hotel when Buena Vista was in its infancy in the 1890s, and the frame Victorian building, with its wide verandah porches is a Virginia Historical Landmark and on the National Register of Historic Places. More adventurous walkers and joggers may want to try out the Woods Creek Trail in Lexington and the Chessie Nature Trail. The Woods Creek Trail followed the creek from Waddell Elementary School to Jordan’s Point, on the Maury River. The trail crosses and recrosses the creek several times and runs through the back sides of the W&L and VMI campuses and is approximately two miles in length. The Chessie Nature Trail runs from East Lexington, just across the new bridge carrying Rt. 11 across the Maury River, to Buena Vista, a distance of 12 miles. It follows the roadbed once occupied by the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad. The line was abandoned following a flood in 1969. The Chessie Trail parallels the Maury River, and runs through pasture and woodlands. The trail affords access to some of the ruins of the canal that once served Lexington prior to the railroads in the mid-19th century. Reid’s Dam and Lock, about a mile east of East Lexington is one of the best examples of the canal’s infrastructure along the trail. The lock walls are in excellent condition, but the dam has been breached by floods over the years. The Chessie Trail is open every day but Christmas Day, and is for pedestrians only – no bicycles allowed. Rockbridge County’s National Forest and wilderness areas contain numerous hiking trails, and publications and guide books to them are available at area bookstores. The Appalachian Trail, which runs from Maine to Georgia, passes through the eastern part of the county along the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains. From the short walk around Lexington or Buena Vista’s downtowns, to a day hike on the Appalachian Trail, the Rockbridge area provides plenty of opportunities for walkers to stretch their legs and enjoy new vistas.
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