Rockbridge Historical Society

Tag: Natural Bridge

  • The Appalachian Trail at 100 and America’s “Revolutionary Lands”

    The Appalachian Trail at 100 and America’s “Revolutionary Lands”

    Click HERE to read more about the series of five events RHS and its regional partners in historic and environmental presentation have organized to celebrate the Appalachian Trail Centennial, in a variety of interactive ways: our “Revolutionary Reading Group” (Oct. 28, Nov. 17); an illustrated slideshow presentation at Natural Bridge State Park’s Visitor Center (Nov. 1); and a pair of guided, interpreted “History Hikes,” for curious hikers, each with different vistas, challenges, and interpretive content shared along the A.T. itself!

  • 250th Anniversary: Jefferson Buys the Natural Bridge

    250th Anniversary: Jefferson Buys the Natural Bridge

    Friday, July 5, 11 AM – 4 PM
    Natural Bridge State Park


    On Friday, July 5, join RHS at Natural Bridge State Park to celebrate a very special 250th Anniversary: commemorating Thomas Jefferson’s purchase of The Natural Bridge from King George III, that same day in 1774. 


    11:00 AM ceremonies under the Bridge spotlight local history, and the perspectives of leading state officials.  After a 4th-of-July-style cookout lunch by Cedar Creek, you can choose from an afternoon menu of related presentations on histories of Jefferson and Conservation; Artistic Depictions, and Tourism at the Bridge.

    For the day’s full program, click HERE. For the News-Gazette feature and related backstories, click HERE.

  • Images of the Rock Bridge

    Images of the Rock Bridge

    From Jefferson to Miley … to Today

    RHS exhibits a collection of 19th Century art prints and photographs of Natural Bridge. Highlights include greatly enlarged prints of the Bridge in the 1880s, taken from large-format camera photos by Michael Miley and C.H. James, a Philadelphia photographer who was engaged by the Natural Bridge Forest Company. Text includes a letter by Jefferson’s granddaughter about their unpleasant trip to Natural Bridge in 1817; material on Colonel Henry C. Parsons, a railroad entrepreneur who formed the Natural Bridge Forest Company in the 1880s and made Natural Bridge the largest privately owned park in the United States and a popular tourist vacation destination; the story of the Greyhound bus bound for Washington, D.C. that nearly plummeted off the top of the Bridge in 1936;  Eleanor Roosevelt’s trip to the Bridge in 1937; and perspectives on the recent purchase and preservation efforts involving Natural Bridge.