Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-08-25
THE NATURAL BRIDGE
Natures Remarkable Handiw0rk in
the Old Dominion Where
WASHINGTON CARVED HIS NAME.
Thomas JeffersOn's Appreciation Of Its
AttractiveneSS.
THE MINING FEVER In VIRGINIA
rcoRREsPoNpENcE OF THE DIsPArcH.1


NATURAL BRIDGE, VA. August a.
Natural Bridge is great place for Matching
mining and land improvement companies.
The profits the people OF Virginia get from
their rich fields no longer satisfy them; they
covet those yielded by the coal and iron
districts of Alabama and Tennessee, and the
prosperity of Decatur, Roanoke and such
towns. Their mineral resources they ex-
pect to some day make them rich. They
think they have as good iron ore as Ala
bama, that they can manufacture it as
cheaply and that they are nearer market
than their Southern rivals. They
believe also that they have marble,
tin and several other ores in valuable
quantities. The aim of the land improve
ment companies is to develop these.
Colonel Parsons, James G. Blaine, John
Sherman, Cal Brice, Major George Hib-
bard, who laid out Tacoma, Governor Lee,
General Anderson and other men OF ma
tional repute are interested in these COM
panies. The last three at present are intent
upon the development of Glasgow, located at
the junction of the North and James rivers,
while the others are putting their i'm
mediate efforts upon the town of Irongate,
few miles from Clifton Forge.
On my way to Natural Bridge passed
the town of Crimora, near which Carnegie,
Phipps 3 Co. get most Of the manganese
iron used in their works about Pittsburg.
They have about $50 men at work now, and
cannot get the manganese out fast enough.
The ore is found In a very faulty vein that
stands on the perpendicular, and is some
times on the surface and sometimes 200 feet
deep below the surface, and varies from a
81 in In oly 70 feat
The Carnegie people bought the controlling
share of the mine from Pittsburger named
James White for $4,000, and he bought
it for few hundred. Will White,
a brother of James White, and also Pitts
burger, has leased another manganese mine
near Roanoke and is developing it.
UNDEvELoPED WEALTH.
The mountains about Crimora are filled
with mineral, but, with the exception of
the deposit which the Carnegie firm is work.
ing, no deposit is being developed success
fully. An Englishman named Kent owns
what he thinks is a very valuable vein of
manganese, and spent considerable money in
getting his ore in shape to be worked and
marketed only to find that the expenses ate
up the profits. He has abandoned the
project for a time at least. Kent is a char
acter. Several years ago he drifted
to Crimora and began prospecting for ores
in the mountains round about, and he has
kept it up ever since. He says nothing to
anybody of his affairs, and beyond knowing
that he has good yearly income coming to
him from an estate in England, his neigh
bors know little about him. He is bach
elor and keeps an old colored housekeeper
to look after his household. Almost any
day he may be met In the mountains, pros
pecting hammer in hand, or else direct
ing the work of two or three men in
digging about his discoveries. At pres
ent his neighbors have their curiosity un-
usually excited with the sight of occasional
bagsful OF mysterious ore that he puts on
the train and sends North. They rather
imagine that he has found tin mine or
that he imagines he has. From time to
time he buys up mountain land until now
he owns considerable. He may strike it
rich yet, when perhaps success may
loosen his tongue about his affairs and past
life and satisfy his curious neighbors.
NATURES HANDIwoRK.
The South has probably no greater at
traction to offer the tourist than Natural
Bridge. The most graphic picture yet
drawn of this wonder falls far short of con-
veying fair idea of it, and writers like
Thomas Jefferson, the Marquis de Chastel-
lux, Harriet Martineau and Charles Dudley
Warner have tried their pen at describing
it. Like Niagara, it must be seen to be ap-
preciated. Leaving the hotel, one follows
pathway down the mountain alongside
turbulent brook that slips in white sheets
over the rocky slopes and growls and roars
as it tumbles over precipice of some
length where the path approaches closest to
it AT this point ones attention is attracted
to two large arbor vite trees, the
larger OF which has circum-
ference of, more than II feet
and has fallen across the brook where it be-
gins its precipitous descent. making pic
turesque natural bridge. The age of the
tree is estimated at /. 500 years, continuing
down the path which bends to the right
about the base of the mountain, cne is
brought abruptly in sight of the bridge
The feeling of surprise gives away gradually
to that of wonder and awe as the eve takes
in its great proportions and graceful out
lines. 1t towers 215 feet above, its width is
100 feet, and its span is 80 feet, and every-
thing else of it and about it is elegantly
proportioned. The arch is regular and
arch and abutments are as smooth as if chis-
eled by man.
The bridge consists of huge stratum of
blue limestone, arching a deep fssure in the
mountain, through which large creek hur-
ries down its rocky bed. Trees grow on its
top and about its sides and ferns and
vines and moss cling in and trail from its
crevices. Through the arch one sees strip
of blue sky and dark background of wav-
ing pines. On the face of the abutment to
the LETT, about 25 feet above the stream, are
scratched scores of names, among them thatof
G. Washington, cut when the "Father of
his Country" was a boy, and a foolhardy
one at that, as the smooth surface of the rock
made the cutting of the name a very peril
Gus one. From the frail bridge crossing the
stream underneath the arch one sees directly
overhead on the great keystone. as it were,
the figure OF a gigantic eagle with wings
outstretched apparently flying up the
chasm; the head, wings and claws are all
perfect Under it is the figure of crouch
ing lion almost as perfect. Discoloration of
the rock caused by percolation of water
from the top surface of the bridge seems to
be responsible for these
FANTASTIC SHAPES.
They have been conspicuous so long as
the history of the bridge goes back, and the
French engineers who surveyed and meas
ured the bridge at the time of the Revo-
lutionary War remarked them and drew
from them happy augury of the success of
the Americans in the struggle. Passing
through the bridge and taking up position
on the further side a hundred yards
or so from it one gets a still better impress
sion of the soaring grace OF the arch. This
side of the bridge is remarkable for its
smoothness and well-proportioned curves.
The arch and abutments give away grad
uallv from the outer edge like the sides of
the basin of huge funnel, due, L imagine,
to the constant wearing away of the rock by
the stream for ages past, starting when Its
had fha fnn nf he nd