The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1873-02-21
Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad
Mineral Wealth and Picturesque

remarkable grades, with its shortness c
line between tho Western states and tn
Atlantic, constitutes great advantage il
its run to the open sea. Whilst the Balti
more and Ohio road has many miles of III
feet grade, the Chesapeake and Ohio rail
road has none between the Ohio river ant
Covington over thirty feet to the mile, ant
only ten miles of that grade. Sixty pei
cent. Of the road is straight, and on tn,
curved portion the minimum radius il
1000 feet and of this minimum there arr
only two and q half miles, scarcely one
per cent. of the whole distance (427 miles,.
From the White Sulphur Springs to Hunt.
ington, q distance of two hundred miles
the rails are all steel.
Among the places of note. adjacent to
or in close proximity to the line of the
road, between the James and the Ohio,
are Hanover courthouse, colonial build.
ing and still in fine state of preservation,
where Patrick Henry, the Demosthenes OF
the Western World, first rung out his
clarion voice for liberty and independence,
and aroused the honest yeomen of his coun-
try against the heel of the oppressor and
despot. Six miles from Gordonsville
Chicken Town, in the county of Orange,
is the birthplace, home and tomb of
James Madison, Montpelier, one of the
most beautiful country seats in the Old
Dominion, and there are not few of them
in this grand old state OF patriots, heroes
and statesman. Three miles from Char
louisville is Monticello, the home and last
resting-place of the author of the declara-
ton OF Independence and founder of the
University Of Virginia Thomas Jefferson,
the great Apostle of Liberty. A few
miles cast of Charlottesville, on the Ri
wanna river, and close to the track, are
the Shadwell Mills, (or what is now left of
them-the walls), still standing, a monu-
ment OF the architecture and industry of a
past generation. The Shadwell Mills were
erected by Thomas Jefferson, near the
place of his birth. A mile west of that
stuck-in-the-mud town, Charlottesville,
and Immediately on the railroad, is the
Athens of America, the University of
Virginia, founded by the champion of hu.
man rights, Thomas jefferson. Between
Greenwood depot and the Blue Ridge tun-
mel, in Albemarle county, lying on the south
side of the track, is the loveliest landscape
scene in either hemisphere, which may well
be termed the garden spot of the world.
As the train reaches Greenwood, going
west, oremerges from the Blue Ridge tun-
mel, going east, every passenger Jumps to
his feet to obtain a look and feast his eyes
on scene Of surprising loneliness.
And strange to say, no artists brush
has ever attempted to portray it on canvas.
Probably it is too much for the knights of
the brush and easel. Seventeen miles from
Staunton depot, in the county of Augusta,
on the north side of the road, is to be seen
that famous and curious freak of nature.
Weyer's Cave, which is visited by thou
sands annually. Another one Of more
recent discovery, and only half mile
distant from Weyer's, is the cave of the
fountains, smaller but no less wonderful
than the former. Some 33 miles from
Goshen depot, in Rockbridge county, is the
famous curiosity, the Natural Bridge, which
spans Cedar creek. A railroad will run
right under the bridge one of these days.
In going from the depot to the bridge trav-
elers and tourists pass through Goshen
Pass "a beautiful scene), by Rockbridge
Baths, pleasant summer resort, through
the Heidelberg of Observation-Disclosures
fall view of the Military University,
Washington and Lee University, and the
tombs Of General Robert E. Lee and Stone
wall jackson, revered shrines to the sons
of the South. On the road from Milboro'
depot to the Warm Springs, in Bath county,
conceded by all tourists to be the most luxu-
rious baths in the world, is the Blowing
Gave, or Gave Of the Winds, in which q
continual blowing is felt and heard at the
0riice, but whence it cometh or whittier it
goeth is past finding out, no one as yet
having discovered the place of its exit.
The more wonderful ebbing and flowing
Syphon Spring IS in the same valley. At Cliff
ton Forge depot is the place where jackson
river cuts its way through Rich Patch
Mountain continuing it sway to Botetourt,
where it unites with the Cow Pastures and
forms the meandering James. As great
an INTEREST," is manifested by passengers to
obtain glimpse of Clifton Forge-for it is
scene of rare and picturesque beauty--as
when the train shoots out of the Blue
Ridge tunnel eastward bound. A little
over eight miles from Covington, on the
stage road to the Healing and Warm
Springs, is the Falling Spring, beautiful
cascade in a romantic glen of Allegheny
county, much higher in its descent than ths
roaring cataract which separates the phleg-
matte Kanucks from the whiting, fidgety
Yanks.
Passing from Virginia through the Ale
ghany tunnel into the state of West Vir-
ginia. the first places and scenes of note
you arrive at are the White Sulphur
Springs, in Greenbrier county, two hundred
and twenty-seven miles from Richmond
and two hundred miles from Huntington,
on the Ohio. The county of Greenbrier is
mountainous, the most prominent and con-
spicuous of which is known by the name
of Keeney's Knob, and is infested with
such reptiles as the rattlesnake, copper
head, black snake, &C., of which stood
in healthy dread and at safe distance,
even at this season of the year. But the
huntsman will find an abundance of deer,
wild turkeys, pheasants, wolves, wild cats,
panthers, bears and variety of small game
to pop away at. The mountain scenery is
indeed rich and romantic, presenting an al.
most endless variety Of changing scenes to
delight the eye and chain the Imagination.
Here the painter may find employment
in sketching the bold outline of natures
work, the botanist in contemplating the
beauties and varieties of the vegetable
kingdom the philosopher and mineralogist
in specializing upon the UNEMPLOYED regions
Of fossils and mineral formations with which
these mountains so richly abound. Passing
through the new county of Summers, you
70 through the Big Bend tunnel, one and q
QUARTER miles long-the longest in the Uni.
ted States-and enter the county OF Fay.
attn onxr fo N, ovo for ifc iunnapca ond rich