Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-08-25

overgrown with oak and pine trees and
bushes, except where the road cuts through,
shutting out a view of its edges. From the
edge of the bridge to the bottom Of the
abyss below the view can properly be
described as terrible. Trees below
look like bushes and full grown persons like
little children. You wonder at the audacity
Of the swallows spinning abont in the chasm
below, now on one side of the bridge and
then darting through the arch to the other
and trying in vain to cling to its rocky arch.
The deep chasm is lined on both sides and
in both directions from the bridge with a
thick growth of somber pines that whisper
weirdly with the wind, and the deep rumble
of the streem below completes the feeling of
awe that comes over the visitor as he looks
down from this
GRAND WORK OF NATURE.
The ravine above the bridge is full of in
terest. A pathway leads through a
pine forest, across rustic bridges
and over and about massive rocks. A
half a mile up is cave in which the
Americans in tine War of 1872 made
saltpeter, and later in the Civil War the
Confederates used it for the same purpose.
Three-quarters of a mile up is the Lost
River" brook that gushes out of the
mountain side from a rocky cavern with a
surface opening of the size of a coal mine.
At the opening one can hear the roar of the
brook as it falls over precipice far back
la the heart of the mountain. Where the
brook originates nobody knows nor will
anybody know until it has worn a cavern in
the mountain and another natural bridge,
as it is slowly but surely doing.
Perhaps several million years from
now there will be two natural
bridges, the present one and this
other one that the "Lost River" is forming.
A quarter of a mile further up the ravine is
a very pretty cascade known as Lace Water
falls.
Though Natural Bridge receives nothing
like the attention from tourists that 1t
should. its beauty and grandeur have been
known and appreciated from earliest colo
nial times. As early as IVA Thomas Jeffer-
son was granted the tract OF land about it
BY King George Ill, and at the time of the
Revolutionary War the bridge had attained
such wide celebrity that the French organ
lied two expeditions TO visit it, and from
their measurements and diagrams a picture
was made in Paris which was copied ex-
tensively in Europe, giving the
bridge Continental celebrity.
While surveying, Lord Fairfax's
domains in the Shenandoah Valley WASH
ington visited the bridge and carried his
name high up on the rocky abutment where
it can be daily seen to this day.
A FAMOUS PLACE.
In the early part of the century it was
much visited, Chief Justice Marshall, Mon
roe, Clay, Benton, jackson, Van Buren,
Sam Houston and other national characters
registered here. Thomas Jefferson predicted
that it would some day be spot resorted to
by thousands, and one year after getting
possession he settled two slaves in a log
cabin near the bridge; one room Of the
cabin he directed to be kept open for the en-
tertainment of strangers. He spoke of it
as ga famous place, that will draw the at
tention of the world" and his pre-
diction is coming true. Every
year more tourists resort to it
than the year previous. The present owner,
Colonel Parsons, Northern man and great
friend of James G.. Blaine, with Mr.. Blaine
bought the bridge and the small tract of
land about it for $4,000 Blaine sold out
to Parsons, and since then the latter has
added tract after tract until now he owns
5000 acres, which, in the opinion of Charles
Dudley Warner, is one of the most magnif-
cent estates in existence. MIR. Parsons has
laid out roads over and around the forest
covered mountains, which command lovely
woodland and mountain scenery. From
Mount Jefferson one gets the finest view of
the Blue Ridge Mountains in all the extent
of that noble range, as we'll as beautiful
stretches of cultivated valleys and upland.
The magnificent scenery about the bridge is
of piece with the picturesque bridge IL
self, and would be worth visit without the
bridge. RIA.