Natural Bridge, Jefferson's Sublime Wonder

Rising two hundred fifteen feet above Cedar Creek, Natural Bridge is a limestone arch carved by water over millions of years, the largest natural land bridge on the North American continent. For the Monacan people it was sacred, a place they called the Great Path, where legend said the Great Spirit opened a crossing in their hour of need. George Washington surveyed the area in seventeen fifty and his initials are carved in the stone.

In seventeen seventy-four, Thomas Jefferson purchased the bridge and one hundred fifty-seven acres from the British Crown for twenty shillings, calling it the most sublime of nature's works, and hoped to hold it as an early public trust. It remained in private hands for more than two hundred years before Virginia purchased it and opened Natural Bridge State Park in twenty sixteen, completing a circle Jefferson had begun.