Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1896-12-03
TIE GREAT NATURAL BRIDGE.


Atlanta Journal
.That is where they let down the rope
to the boy. He jumped from that little
ledge you see away up there-that bird
just few past it!-and caught the rope as
1t swung toward him.
We looked up, stretching our heads back
until our necks ached.
lis that story really true"
'.The old settlers around here say so.
The boy was student from Washington
and-Lee, which is not very far from here.
Of course, the account Of the feat, usually
found in Fifth Readers, is good deal ex-
aggerated. There was no crowd watching
while he climbed, as the story says; only
few of his friends were with him; but it is
true that a boy really did climb nearly to
the top of the bridge. You see that ledge
up there almost under the archf When he
reached that place he could climb no fur
ther on account of the arching over the
bridge. Then they say he looked back to
see how to climb down again. You know
it's a fact that you can climb up much
easier than down."-There may be a
deeper significance to those words, l
Thought you look downward
everything appears to be smoother. So
there the boy hung nearly 200 feet from
the ground, unable to move one way or
the other"
We looked again up to that tiny pro-
lection not much bigger than the bowl of
spoon, it seemed, from that great dis
lance. 1t was awful. later, when we
went to the top of the bridge, we looked
down; it was frightful)
We were standing under the shadow of
that fearful monument of the Builder who
knows no limits, the bridge, whose walls
are mountains and whose buttresses are
peaks. The rayine is so deep the sun
shines in only about noon. And all this
magnificence of architecture royalty
thrown away on a mere wading stream.
Its fish no bigger than minnows. But the
Builders quarry, likewise, knows no
limits.
The approach to the bridge is by a mar
row, tortuous, rapidly descending path. A
small stream tumbles down the mountain
beside us all the way. The deep foliage of
the trees keeps lis hidden from view of
the bridge, until sharp turn to the right
suddenly brings us up almost under it.
But the first sight, perhaps, is little
disappointing The mind has to take time
to adjust itself to these enormous dimen-
sions. As we approach it, ut length stand
just under the bridge itself, and look up
ward, perhaps even then we are still n
little disappointed, until suddenly we are
startled by faint crying flock of swal-
lows flying under the bridge: then we
begin to comprehend its dizzy altitude.
The approach is not so impressive as the
opposite view on account of the dipping OF
the arch on that side. To walk hundred
feet further on, passing under the bridge,
and then look back at it, one catches the
curves of its enormous conyeXity, and the
lift of its span. On this side, also, the two
mountains that buttress the bridge rapidly
rise for some distance further on; conse
quently the ravine walls are much higher
All these things combine 10 make the lattel
view of the bridge very impressive.
Cathedral wall nearly 300 feet high
straight as the side of house, buttresscd
and turreted, towers up on one side
Across the rayine from it, overhangins
the abyss below, is little ledge of rocl
not ten feet square, Pulpit Rock. Herr
one may stand and look below-if he can
and try to realize the horror OF that
boy when he .'caught the faint echoes o
the people beneath him shouting to hin
to jump for the rope" Imam old Nirgini'
history there is statement that whel
the boy was drawn up his hair had turne,
white.
Nothing grows down the sides of thi
ravine. 1t is all rock, solid and ghostly
If one were to slip. he would strike agains
nothing on his way until he struck til
ground. There is scarcely place for bir
to alight. How did the boy climb it? TIL
story goes that he had a knife and Gu
footholes between the rock rims.
And it is narrow, that little silver run
ming ravine; just room enough for it
brook and footpath beside it. 1t is nal
row and cold under the shadow of thes
eternal ramparts. When birds fly dow
into it they merely drop; there is not r0ol
to use their wings. They spread them OF
to break the fall, and drop down lik
leaves. If a Niagara were spilling owe
one of its sides its leap would striB
against the opposite wall.
Above. Nature has so coyly softencd ii
edge of the hideous precipice. 50 hidden
with blOssoming trees and messy turf. thu
dreamer walking there some day wou
unexpectedly feel sharp slip of his fee
would catch out at a tree, a bit of grass
the sudden fiashlight of a yawning abyss
death! One comes shouting and latighir
down the steps toward Pulpit Rock-su
denly stops himself aghast, quivering {
the very edge of the frightful drop.
In 1879 great mass of rock was sp
off from the arch by the freezing of Il
water in its crevices, and was hurled h
low, crashing into million fragment
The ground is Uttered over with bits
rock, with here and there boulder ha
embedded in the soil. There hangs on Il
left of the arch AS one approaches anoth
mass just ready to fall; n wide crack q
tends from the top of the hill almost dow
to the ground. Half hill yawns. A c,
umn of earth and frightful rocks half
big as freight cars stand up there in t
air, held back by a few clods, a slend
stone, root or two. When it falls o
power exists that may clear it away-t
river.
sc. W." There it is: his own aut
h-Washington's. 1t is one of t
great prize boxes" of the bridge. 1t
cut deep into the rock about thirty fl
above the ground. Several other nan
are cut above this, but they were not I
there by climbers; some engineers plac
ladders against the rock and thus reach
the point. The sc. W." is said to
really genuine. The Old Settler voucl
for this fact also. The wv" is qu
plain, but the sc" is somewhat unc
tain.
Other points of interest are Lost Riv
an underground stream whose runni
can be heard by stopping down close tt