The San Francisco call., 1896-12-13
FAMOUS NATURAL BRIDGE HSI

THAT is where they let down The rope
to the boy. He jumped from that little
ledge you see way up there-that bird just
few past it-and caught the rope as it
swung toward him."
We looked up, stretching our heads back
until our necks ached.
''Is that story really true?'
The old settlers around here say so.
The boy was a student from Washington
Lee, which is not very far from here
OF course, the account OF the feat, usually
found in fifth readers is q good deal ex-
aggerated. There was no crowd watching
while he climbed, as the story says; only
a few of his friends we're with kim; but it
is true that boy really did climb nearly
TO the top of the bridge. You see that
ledge up there almost under the arch
When he reached that place he could
climb no further on account of the arch
ing over the BRIDE. Then they say he
looked back to see how to climb down
again. You know it's fact that you can
climb up much easier than down." There
may be a deeper 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 thai tiny projec-
ton; not much bigger than the bowl of a
spoon, it seemed from that great distance.
1t was awfnl. Later when we went to the
top of the bridge, we looked down; 1t was
frightfuI.
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, says q writer in the Atlanta Jour
nal. The ravine is SO deep the sun shines
in only about noon. And all this mag
nificence of architecture royalty thrown
away on mere wading stream! Its fish
no bigger than minnows. But the Build.
er's 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 noun
tain beside US all the way. The deep foli-
age of the trees keeps US hidden from a
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
dimensions. AS we approach it, at length
stand just under the bridge ITSELF and look
upward, perhaps even then We are still a
little disappointed, until suddenly we are
startled by faint-crying flock of swallows
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 100 feet
further on, passing under the bridge, and
then look back at it, one catches the curves
Of its enormous convexity ana the lift OF
its span. On this side also the two noun
tains that buttress the bridge rapidly rise
for some distance further on; conse-
quently the ravine walls are much higher.
All these things combine to make the lat
ter view of the bridge very impressive.
Cathedral wall, nearly 300 feet high.
straight as the side OF a house, buttressed
and turreted, towers up on one side.
Across the ravine from it, overhanging
the abyss below, is little ledge of rock
not ten feet square, Pulpit Rock Here
one may stand and look beIow-if he can
and try to realize the horror of that boy
when he caught the faint echoes of the
people beneath him shouting to him to
jump for the rope" In an old Virginia
history there is statement 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 a knife and
cut footholes between the rock rims.
And ii 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 these
eternal ramparts. When birds fly down
into it they merely drop; there is not
room to use their wings. They spread
them out to break the fall and drop down