Just one mile east of Route 76, US Highway 11 crosses over Natural Bridge, a rock formation recognized in the early nineteenth century as one of the wonders of the new American republic. The bridge is a natural formation, probably the result of an underground river that carved through original rock to leave only the bridge intact. For more than two centuries, since the time of American independence, Natural Bridge has attracted attention from visitors, artists, scholars, and entrepreneurs. For most of this time, beginning with Thomas Jefferson’s purchase of the land, Natural Bridge was owned by private businesses. In 2016, after decades of negotiations, Natural Bridge became part of the Virginia State Parks system. The fact that Highway 11 was constructed on top of this remarkable environmental feature provides interesting perspectives on the history of this land before European conquest as well as the implications of making this feature accessible to tourists while retaining and protecting its scenic and spiritual value.
Welcome to episode 17 of the Virginia Bikecentennial Route 76 Podcast. This episode is connected to Natural Bridge, located just under 300 miles from Yorktown, the starting point for the westbound route, and about 250 miles from the Kentucky border, where eastbound riders enter Virginia. This podcast is a production of Virginia Tech, a public land grant university located in Blacksburg, just three miles from Route 76 in southwest Virginia. I am your host, Tom Ewing, and this podcast is produced by the digital humanities program in Virginia Tech University Libraries, under the direction of media manager Joe Forte. To learn more about the stories in this episode, visit our website or follow us on social media, all accessible for the homepage for this podcast.
Highway 11 is closely connected to the Transamerican Route 76. About thirty miles of Route 76 between Troutville and Natural Bridge are either on Route 11 or on adjoining roads. In addition, Route 76 runs more or less parallel to Highway 11 for almost 175 miles, about one-third of all the miles in Virginia, from Vesuvius in the north to Rural Retreat in the south. Route 76 crosses Highway 11 countless times, thus illustrating how these two routes are connected throughout this region of Virginia. These concurrent routes take advantage of the topography, as Highway 11, like Route 76 and Interstate 81, run through the valley in a generally southwest to northeast direction.
For thousands of years before European settlement, this same route was used by Native Americans to travel along the eastern coast of the continent. This route was known by various names, including the Warriors’ Trail, the Seneca Trail, and the Great Indian WarPath. A historical marker in Roanoke, about five miles south of Route 76, lists several of these names and situates this route in the history of the region. Native Americans used this route for trading, military campaigns, and migration. As European explorers moved into the Appalachian mountains, these same paths were used for travel by foot and horse. European settlers followed the same route in wagons as they established farms, founded towns, and built roads throughout the Appalachian valley.
The designation of the Monacan Trail in Natural Bridge State Park calls attention to the important history of the Monacan Indian Tribe in this region of Virginia, which includes numerous locations along and near Route 76. The story of the Monacan Indian Nation is closely connected with the history of the United States and Virginia revealed along Route 76 in terms of geographic location and major themes and trends. The Monacan Indian Nation predated the English settlement in the Americans by thousands of years, thus providing a unique perspective on the relatively minor period of two hundred years since Independence recognized by the 1976 Bikecentennial.
The origins of the Monacan Indian Nation have been traced back approximately ten thousand years to settlements across the Ohio Valley, which now includes parts of West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, and Virginia. The Siouan peoples were agriculturalists, who cultivated corn, beans, and squash, while also harvesting fruit, sunflowers, grapes, and nuts from the forests. The Monacans hunted deer, elk, and small game, and often made annual treks to hunting grounds with abundant game. In the mountains of Virginia, the Monacan mined copper, which was made into ornamental necklaces. The Monacans traded with other tribes, including the Powhatan along the rivers toward the coast and the Iroquois to the north. The Monacan buried their dead in elaborate mounds, some of which contain relics dating back back more than a thousand years.
The Monacan Indian Nation lived across Virginia prior to European settlement, including most of the Piedmont region east of Richmond and into the Blue Ridge Mountains. The invasion of the Americas by European explorers, particularly the Spanish in the sixteenth century, brought infectious diseases that contributed to widespread deaths and depopulated settlements. As a result, native American communities were in a weakened position to respond to the first European settlements in the Americas.
In the early seventeenth century, when the English arrived at Jamestown, the Monacan lived above the fall line of the river. Rassaweck, located at the confluence of the Rivanne River and the James River, was the principal Monacan settlement. A historical marker notes that the Monacan lived throughout central Virginia until the expansion of the English colony displaced them to the west and the south. This historical marker is just a few miles south of Route 76 in Fluvanna county, between Richmond and Charlottesville.
As the English explored territory to the west in the decades after Jamestown was established, they encountered villages populated by the Monacan Indian Nation, but the explorers made little effort to learn the Monacan language and thus few historical records were preserved of these encounters. Maps drawn by English explorers show the location of Monacan settlements but provide little evidence of sustained interaction. In 1680, Monacan leaders agreed to the Treaty of Middle Plantation, which made the Native Americans into tributaries of the English and in return the English promised to keep three miles away from Indian settlements. Monacans continue to pay tribute to the Virginia governor into the present, but the English did not respect the promise to respect the boundaries of the Indian settlements.
As the English expanded their territory into the hills of Virginia, the Monacan Indian Nation gradually moved westward to avoid interactions with the colonizing Europeans. Some members of the Monacan Indian Nation migrated to the north, where they integrated with Iroquois and other confederations in Pennsylvania, New York, and eventually in Canada. Other members of the Monacan Indian Nation went south, where they joined with other tribes in North Carolina, only to be subject to further expansion and displacement as European settlements expanded in this region as well.
By the early eighteenth century, Native Americans in Virginia were deprived of all legal rights and were subject to some of the same repressive and cruel laws as enslaved African Americans. The Monacan were not recognized as a tribe and did not secure any Native land.
The Monacan who remained in Virginia gathered in the region of Bear Mountain, about twenty miles east of where Route 76 passes through Natural Bridge. For several decades, until the 1740s, members of the Monacan Indian Nation and other Native American communities resided in this remote region with little interaction from European explorers and settlers. Maps drawn by English explorers and traders depict villages of Native Americans in the region, and occasional hunting parties were reported by settlers on the frontier. These interactions were mostly peaceful, but some violent enounters led some English settlers to temporarily abandon more remote farms. By the late eighteenth century, larger and more permanent settlements in the region, including the city of Lynchburg founded in 1786, began to encroach on the territory traditionally claimed for Monacan Indian Nation communities.
The Bear Mountain Indian Mission School was established in the years after the Civil War, when segregated public schools for whites and emancipated slaves did not offer education for Native Americans. A one room school built in 1868 was eventually replaced by a larger “New School,” built in 1908. These schools became community centers that preserved both a sense of identity and the customary practices of traditional Native life. A historical marker near the preserved school confirms that this property now belongs to the Monacan Indian Nation.
The history of Natural Bridge provides interesting perspectives on the complicated relationship between people and the land, before, during, and after European conquest and the independence of the United States. Natural Bridge was considered a spiritual site by Native Americans, as recorded in stories heard and preserved by English settlers. Grave sites in the vicinity of Natural Bridge confirm these burial practices, although it has not been formally designated under the Antiquities Act in ways that would ensure proper protection by representatives of Native American tribes. The State Park has a Monacan village which is now coordinated by community activists and experts dedicated to ensuring that visitors appreciate the depth and complexity of Native American history, traditions, and cultures.
An oral tradition among the Monacan Indian Nation tells of a time when ancestors were running from an attacking enemy tribe. They came to the edge of a cliff, closed their eyes, and prayed for protection. When they opened their eyes, the bridge appeared. Women and children were able to run across to safety, while men stayed to fight off the pursuers. The bridge has retained a spiritual meaning in Native American culture ever since, even as control of the natural
Natural Bridge is closely linked to two iconic figures from the American Revolution. George Washington surveyed the region in 1750, more than twenty five years before assuming command of the revolutionary army. According to legend, Washington climbed twenty feet up the rock wall and carved his initials in the stone. A historical marker guides visitors to the visible letters, GW, on the cliff wall.
Thomas Jefferson purchased Natural Bridge along with a large tract of land in 1774, two years before American independence. Jefferson praised the bridge for both the terrifying view from the top and the sublime beauty of the bridge looking from below. A painting of Jefferson with Natural Bridge in the background in 1801 by artist Caleb Boyle is thought to be the first visual representation of this natural landmark.
Natural Bridge has long been a favorite subject for philosophers, writers, and artists — including some who never actually came in person to see the bridge. In 1806, author James Kirke Paulding offered this first-hand account: “My knees shook under me when looking down and from below I was struck with a feeling of sublimity which no object I have ever seen had hitherto inspired.” An 1852 painting by artist Frederic Edwin Church is regarded as among the more realistic of the era, and is also notable for the presence of an African American guide pointing at the bridge while speaking with a seated white woman.
A common feature of paintings is the positioning of people along the creek, looking up at the bridge, in ways that illustrate the remarkable scale of the landmark. As landscape photography emerged as an art form in the late nineteenth century, these same conventions continued, with the vastness of the bridge overshadowing the people positioned along the creek. Photographers indulging in a more recent genre by taking selfies have to position their camera and themselves carefully to include all of Natural Bridge in the background.
Yet very few of the accessible paintings or photographs depict the highway crossing over the bridge. Most photographs are taken from the walkway along the creek, and the angle doesn’t reveal the cars passing overhead. Substantial safety fences on either side of the road prevent travelers from seeing down into the gorge. In other words, the contours of this space allow visitors to Natural Bridge to believe that the bridge is still in a natural state, without any visible reminder that the bridge has been engineered to carry thousands of cars and trucks every day in ways that are seemingly invisible to visitors. Even cyclists, who may think they have more connection with the natural environment than those riding in cars, are unlikely to realize that they are riding over a 250 foot drop to Cedar Creek and thus have little awareness of the dozens or even hundreds of visitors looking up at the bridge as they cross over.
You have been listening to episode 17 of the Virginia Bikecentennial Route 76 Podcast. This episode is connected to Natural Bridge, located just under 300 miles from Yorktown, the starting point for the westbound route, and about 250 miles from the Kentucky border, where eastbound riders enter Virginia. This podcast is a production of Virginia Tech, a public land grant university located in Blacksburg, just three miles from Route 76 in southwest Virginia. I am your host, Tom Ewing, and this podcast is produced by the digital humanities program in Virginia Tech University Libraries, under the direction of media manager Joe Forte. To learn more about the stories in this episode, visit our website or follow us on social media, all accessible for the homepage for this podcast.
