The evening tribune. (Pawtucket, R.I.) 189?-190?, 1896-12-16
!THENATURALBRIDGE
THE PRESENT APPEARANCE OF A IA.
NOUS VIRGINIA WONDeR.

The First View L. Little Disappointing
60 some, but ~ One Gaxes He Becomes
More and Moro Impressed-Scene Of .
School Reader Story.
"That IL where they lot down the rope
20 the boy. He jumped from that little
ledge you SEQ way up thern-that bird just
few past it-and caught the rope as 1t
swung toward him."
We looked up, stret" ing our heads back
until our necks ache.
"Is that story r. ~ true'"
"The old settI 3 around here say %.
The boy was s.ldent from Washington
and Lee, whic' IS not very far from here.
OF course, = account of the feat, usually
found In D Readers, Is good deal ex-
aggeratef there was no crowd watching
while r mbed as the story says, only
few O. friends were with him, but 1t Is
true . a boy really did climb nearly to
the Of the bridge. You see that ledge
u Gre almost under the arch? When he
ched that place, he could climb no far
.ier on account of the arohing over the
bridge. Then thoy say he looked back to
ISe how TO climb down again. You know
It's fact that you can climb up much
easier than down. "There may be deep
or significance to those words, thought.
"When 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 projec-
ton, not much bigger than the bowl of
spoon, it seemed, from that great distance.
II was awful. Later, when we went to the
top of the bridge, we looked down; 1t 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 ravine Is so deep the sun
shines I'm only about noon. And all this
mAgnificence of architecture royalty
thrown away on q mere wading stream,
its fish no bigger than minnowa But the
Builders quarry likewise knows no lin
IT..
The approach to the bridge Is by a mar
row, tortuous, rapidly descending path. A
small stream tumbles down tho mountain
beside US all the way. The deep foliage Of
the trees keeps US hidden from view Of
the bridge until sharp turn to tho right
suddenly brings us up almost under It,
But the first sight perhaps 10 little
disappointing The mind has to take time
10 adjust itself to these enormous dimen-
sions. As we approach 1t, at length stand
Just under the bridge itSelf and look up
ward, perhaps even then we are still q lit
fle disappointed, until suddenly we are
startled by faint crying fock Of swallows
flying under the bridge; then we begin to
comprehend its dizzy altitude.
The approach il not 80 impressive as the
opposite view, on account of tho dipping
4 - a ~ 2~Ak
further on, passing under tho bridge and
then look back at Il, one oatohes the
curves Of It's enormous oonvcxity and the
MT of its span. On this side also the two
anountains that buttress the bridge rapid
Y rise for sonc distance farther on. Con-
4quently the ravine walls are much high
es. All these things combine to make the
Attsr view of the bridge very impressive
Cathedral wall, nearly 800 feet high,
straight as the side of house, buttressed
lShd turreted, towers up on one side.
skcross the ravine from II, overhanging
Do abyss below, Is little ledge Of rock
Dr. 10 feet square-Pulpit rock Here one
lmay stand and look below, II no can,
and try to realize the horror of that boy
when no "oaught the faint echoes Of the
people beneath him shouting to him to
jump for the rope In an old Virginia
history there Is a statements that when the
boy was drawn up his hair had turned
white.
Nothing grows down the sides of this
ravine. 1t is all rock, solid and ghostly. II
one were to slip, he would strike against
nothing on his way until he struck the
ground. There is scarcely place for bird
to alight How did the boy climb it, The
story goes that he had knife and cut
tfootholes between the rock rims.
And 1t is narrow, that little silver run
ming ravine, just room enough for Its
brook and footpath beside it. 1t Is mar
row and cold under the shadow OF those
eternal ramparts When birds fly down in
to it, they merely drop; there is not room
to use their wings. They spread them out
to break the fall and drop down like leaves.
II Niagara were spilling over one Of its
sides, its leap would strike against the op-
posite all.
Above, nature has so coyly softened the
edge of the hideous precipioe, so hidden it
with blossoming trees and mossy turf,
shat dreamer walking there some day
would unexpectedly feel sharp slip of his
feet, would catch out at u tree, bit of
grass-the sudden fiashlight Of q yawning
abyss-death! One comes shouting and
laughing down the steps toward Pulpit
rock--suddenly stops himself aghast, quiv.
sring, on tho very edge Of the frightful
drop.
In 1879 a great mass OF rock was split
off from the arch by the freezing OF tho
water in It's crevices and was hurled be-
low, crashing into a million fragments
The ground Is Uttered over with bits OF
rock, with here and there u bowlder half
Embedded in the soil. There hangs on the
Isft of the arch as one approaches another
mass just ready to fall A wide crack ex-
tends from the top Of the hill almost down
20 the ground. Half hill yawns. A COL
umn of the earth and frightful rocks half
90 big as freight cars stand up there In the
air, held back by few olods, slender
stone, root or two When IL falls one
power exists that may clear ID away-the
liver.
sc. W." There it is, his own autograph
--washington's. It is one Of tho great
'prize boxes' Of the bridge 1t Is cut deep
S-ko <ho r<~c6 oI,otrt 00 feat aboy0 the