Route 220
Yesterday I had to be in Monterey at 10 AM and Collinsville at 3 PM, so, with the exception of 7 miles on the north and about 10 miles on the South, I drove the entire length of Highway 220 in Virginia. Here's an earlier post about the Carolina Road. Here is the Wikipedia entry for US Route 220. The Virginia section of the wikipedia article is empty; maybe I will give it a try this week-- I'll need subsections for Highland County, Bath County, Alleghany County, Botetourt County, Roanoke County, Franklin County and Henry County.
I didn't have a lot of time to dawdle; however, I did stop for lunch (eaten in the car) at the Homestead Market, across the street from the Homestead spa entrance in Warm Springs, and I stopped for a second to take a look at the Falling Spring, which is beside 220 in Alleghany County. Falling Spring rated a mention in Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia:
Falling Spring The only remarkable Cascade in this country, is that of the Falling Spring in Augusta. It is a water of James river, where it is called Jackson's river, rising in the warm spring mountains about twenty miles South West of the warm spring, and flowing into that valley. About three quarters of a mile from its source, it falls over a rock 200 feet into the valley below. The sheet of water is broken in its breadth by the rock in two or three places, but not at all in its height. Between the sheet and rock, at the bottom, you may walk across dry. This Cataract will bear no comparison with that of Niagara, as to the quantity of water composing it; the sheet being only 12 or 15 feet wide above, and somewhat more spread below; but it is half as high again, the latter being only 156 feet, according to the mensuration made by order of M. Vaudreuil, Governor of Canada, and 130 according to a more recent account.
(Link)
This page, which also has a picture of the waterfall, notes that the spring has been moved a few meters over from when Jefferson saw it. Natrually, no sign at the falls mentions this fact. I guess that's progress.
I didn't have a lot of time to dawdle; however, I did stop for lunch (eaten in the car) at the Homestead Market, across the street from the Homestead spa entrance in Warm Springs, and I stopped for a second to take a look at the Falling Spring, which is beside 220 in Alleghany County. Falling Spring rated a mention in Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia:
Falling Spring The only remarkable Cascade in this country, is that of the Falling Spring in Augusta. It is a water of James river, where it is called Jackson's river, rising in the warm spring mountains about twenty miles South West of the warm spring, and flowing into that valley. About three quarters of a mile from its source, it falls over a rock 200 feet into the valley below. The sheet of water is broken in its breadth by the rock in two or three places, but not at all in its height. Between the sheet and rock, at the bottom, you may walk across dry. This Cataract will bear no comparison with that of Niagara, as to the quantity of water composing it; the sheet being only 12 or 15 feet wide above, and somewhat more spread below; but it is half as high again, the latter being only 156 feet, according to the mensuration made by order of M. Vaudreuil, Governor of Canada, and 130 according to a more recent account.
(Link)
This page, which also has a picture of the waterfall, notes that the spring has been moved a few meters over from when Jefferson saw it. Natrually, no sign at the falls mentions this fact. I guess that's progress.
posted by Virginian | 6:57 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home