The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1905-02-08
can Historic Bridge.
Events. Vhgni he
WRITTEN AR5

III WRITTEN FOR THE STA
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Washington is entering an epoch of
improvement which will gret tly add to
the magnificent appearance Of the city
But at the same time some the most
treasured institutions will pass into
memory. 1t is now qu lrter of
century since | saw for the first time
the Long Bridge that reaches south
from Washington across the Potomac,
and to all of Dixie. | have cen other
famous crossings since then, the bridge
at Omaha, where the East was once
connected with the West by the Union
Pacific Railroad, when that was the
only road across the Continent the
bridges across the Niagara River, con
Meeting two nations; the London Bridge,
which is wondrous thorOughfare and
many others. But the only one that
has ever awakened such sentiments as
the Long Bridge at Washington is
perhaps the Sultan's Bridge across the
Golden Horn in Constantinople--a
bridge on which all the earth meets
more completely than in any other spot.
| At the Golden Horn the locomotive
from civilized Europe greets the camel
train from the interior of Asia Minor.
| The Turk and the Christian stand aside
together to let the Sultan's giant negro
factorum pass by in state. Templar
and Saracen, Russian Jew and American
missionary touch elbows on the bridge
which makes easy way that men have
followed since the first days of history.
As nearly all there is Of history in the
Old World has at one time or another
echoed to the bridge at the Golden
Horn, so in the New World, nearly all
that is worth while in history has been
reflected against the crossing at Wash
ingtOn. History in the United States
almost commenced at the Long Bridge.
The transition from the North to
Washington is gradual. But the step
from Washington across the Potomac
is a step into a new world. The bridge
that CONNECTS the shores Of the stream
connects Virginia with the United
States. Virginia is of the South. The
air is fragrant with the sweet incense of
burning pine-an odor that the old
soldier would hail even now with de-
light, for he knows that there is no fuel
to compare with the pine knots that
warmed him in the peninsula and the
wilderness At this season little snow
whitens the ground in places in North
ern Virginia. But the air is clear, and
the pine forests, broken here and there
by the dilapidation of some old planta-
tion, inspire the wild instincts of man
to long for week in such su roundings
with a dog and a gun TIE river is
alive with water fowl, and u 9 cars are
enlivened by the curious interest of the
passengers, large proportion being
tourists on their first voyage aouthward.
There are plenty of people who go to
Europe who have never seen their own
country. Such are unfortunate. 1t is
lamented that we have in America no
past and therefore nothing to excite
the attention of the traveller America
has moved more rapidly tn; Europe.
That is all We have here just as much
of history, for we have here just as
great nation, and just as advanced "a
people. That the achievement has
taken hut four centuries signifies moth
ing There is fascination in tracing
the story of Waterloo while wandering
over the scene of that memorable battle.
But the defeat of CORVALLIS in Virginia
is more fascinating event to the man
who is studying the uprising of nations.
Waterloo was the downfall of sover-
ign. Yorktown was the creation of
such an empire as the world never saw
before. That empire is that United
States. That battlefield is Virginia.
What has the Old World to show to
compare with it
Virginia was the beginning of the
United States. AT jamestown the first
permanent English settlement was
made three hundred years ago. although
an effort had been made long before
that to establish colonies in North
Carolina. Virginia was in armed re-
bellion against the mother government
a century before the Declaration o.
American Independence brought the
actual freedom Of the colonies. Vir
ginia has been SO associated with the
making of the matchless empire which
is now the United States that the frs
impulse of the thoughtful man who
| crnsses hu the ono Rrid nn for the firs.