Evening star., 1934-07-29
BRIEF TRIP OFFERS
LOVELY SCENERY
Washingtonians Only SO
Miles From Beautiful
Harpers Ferry.
nv CHARLES y. DEGGEs.
e..r corresuondsnt Of The star.

on LFtt AbA&S Dt AAEC 1fFA " - D@fN@N~%
and the other planted precariously on
ths ledge rock OF the Blue Ridge
Mountains, this old town Deckons 10
Tourists With both historic and scenic
appeals.
II was up here in Harpers Ferry.
amid the gorgeous scenery contributed
BY three States--West virginia. Mary
land and Virginia--that John Brown
staga4 his Famous abolitionist raid
ttas was one of the sparks in the
firsnf OF the Nation 10 civil strife
And IL was here, At the junction OF
the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers.
that Thomas Jefferson found view
which. he wrote, Is worth voyage
aorev the Atlantic" II Is this
scene-y which annually draws thou
sands Of persons from all parts OF
the country.
Fifty nine Miles Away.
As close 10 Washington as all this
is-Ss miles over paved roads by way
of Frederick, Md.--Capital residents
can't afford to miss the joys others
travel thousands OF miles 70 expe-
rience And while they are here.
washingtonians can make an excur-
sion up into lovely Shenandoah Valley
This correspondent has completed just
such a trip this week and he finds
that after journeying out Wisconsin
avenue into Maryland on the first leg
of the trip and returning across Key
Bridge from Virginia on the last leg,
ones automobile speedometer will
not register more than 28o miles.
Now this trips course followed U. s.
Highway No 240 through Bethesda,
Nd. to Rockville. From the Mont
gonery County seat. perhaps the
s'usual" route would continue on road
$40 through Gaithersburg and on to
Frederick, but that highway was fol-
lowed in an earlier tour OF this
Evening Star series, so this corre-
sponGent elected TO follow Maryland
State Highway No. 20 out OF Rock
vile. This road Is not nearly so
heavily Travelled as the Frederick road.
II Ia CT the macadam type, is ade-
oriately broad, well constructed and
safely marked Furthermore, 1t runs
through delightful farming country in
pleasantly rolling landscape.
Pleasant Little Villages.
No. 2B rolls and curves its way
Though happy-appearing little VIZ
lages, including, In order, Hunting
Hill. Ounce orchard. Darnestown,
Jacksonville. Beallsville. Dickerson
and Licksville. where it is abandoned
for No. Is. Quaint Point of Rocks is
the next town and there one finds
himself in setting of the last CEN
tury. A narrow, high-pitched wooden
bridge literally throws" itself across
the old Chesapeake 81 Ohio Canal
and a glance TO the left reveals a rot
ting and abandoned hulk Of one OF
The canal boats that once carried
commerce on that waterway at the
end of a mule teams traces.
Now the road here runs straight
against a mountainside and then
bears hard left for the Virginia shore
Just across the Potomac River. The
railroad tracks which parallel the
highway at Point of Rocks negotiate
that Maryland mountain by boring
through it. The highway that crosses
the Potomac runs southwark to Lees
burg, Va. so. after a further look
around" at Point of Rocks, retrace
your course fifth of a mile and head
northward as though you'd go to
bN way Va LOdOo dhA
Adamstown.
It is possible, of course. to con-
tinue on the Ia miles up No. is to
Frederick and at that city transfer to
u. S. Highway No. $40 for the 20
miles on to Harpers Ferry. But this
correspondent chose a little dirt road
that climbs windingly over the noun
tain just above Point of Rocks. The
entrance to this most attractive and
fot-too-difficult road is on the left
about a mile from the turnout at
Point OF Rocks.
On to Harpers Ferry.
This little dirt roed-about Az
miles long-is interesting because il
takes you to an incompleted piece of
beautiful concrete road on the other
side of the mountain. This new
highway halts abruptly in a steam
shoveled pocket in the mountain and
inquiries bring the information that
eventually the concrete highway will
be pushed to completion over the
mountain top to merge with the high
way you left on the other side. When
you reach the incompleted concrete
road, get on it and follow it into
Brunswick. Sizable town, then on to
Knoxville and Weverton.
At Weverton you'll glimpse HarperS
Fsrry's famous scenery through a
smoky haze that rises from the rail-
road tracks below you on the left.
The Potomac is down there on the
left, too, and you'll notice its surface
Is rock-rent and swift. Moving on,
through Weverton, you come to a
quaking, shaking. rafting, wood
decked iron bridge. Cross it and pay
your quarter toll at the other end.
and you are here in Hsrpers Ferry.
In West Virginia.
This town of considerably less than
o thousand population you'll find to
be wholly Of the mountains. The
road over which you enter it is on
level just above the fast-fiowing
waters of the Potomac and Shenan-
doah Rivers and, in fact. bears to the
left through street of dilapidated
stone and frame structures TO follow
the Shenandoah along a cleft in the
nearly sheer mountain side. The
highway. however swings suddenly 70
the right for a steep climb through
the heart of the city to the heights
above.
Once on top, take any street on the
right and follow il TO the edge of the
plateau on which Harpers Ferry is
built. In reality you'll be standing
on the bank" OF the Potomac which
flows across a stone corrugated bed to
curve through the huge gorge south
ward. Railroad tracks wind and twist
through the gorges and bore through
the mountain IN tunnel over on the
Maryland side
Origin Of the Name.
Here a bit OF the history OF this
place might be recalled. for IL was
this very scenery that resulted in the
name of 'Harpers Ferry" Robert
Harper OF Oxford. England. sailed to
Philadelphia in i735. He was an
architect and builder and he pros
pered III his new home. But economic
reVerSeS rising ont 0f a family title n