الجسر الطبيعي (ڤرجينيا)

	Natural Bridge
	السجل الوطني للأماكن التاريخية
	مفهم تاريخي وطني أمريكي
	الجسر الطبيعي
	الجسر الطبيعي الجسر الطبيعي الجسر الطبيعي
أقرب مدينة	ناتشرال بردج، ڤرجينيا
الإحداثيات	Coordinates:
جزء من	Natural Bridge Historic District (خطأ لوا: invalid capture index %2 in replacement string.)
NRHP reference #	خطأ لوا: invalid capture index %2 in replacement string.
تواريخ بارزة
أضيف إلى NRHP	November 18, 1997
Designated NHL	August 6, 1998

الجسر الطبيعي Natural Bridge هوتشكيل جيولوجي في مقاطعة ركبردج، ڤرجينيا، يتألف من قوس طبيعي بارتفاع 66 متر ببحر 27 متر. ويقع في a gorge carved from the surrounding mountainous limestone terrain by Cedar Creek, a small tributary of the James River. Consisting of horizontal limestone strata, Natural Bridge is the remains of the roof of a cave or tunnel through which the Cedar Creek once flowed.

Natural Bridge has been designated a Virginia Historic Landmark and a National Historic Landmark. Since 2016, the bridge and its surroundings have been managed by the Commonwealth of Virginia as الجسر الطبيعي، المنتزه الولائي.

الجيولوجيا

Rocks in the area are limestones and dolomites from the Ordovician Period, which implies deposition about 470 million years ago. The carbonates of the Natural Bridge occur within the Chepultepec Formation, making the buttress of the bridge, and the Beekmantown Formation, deposited conformably over the Chepultepec and comprising the span and the upper part of the bridge.Strata at Natural Bridge are close to horizontal, in contrast with dipping and folded beds as close as 300 قدم (91 م) away along Highway 11, which points to the fact that structurally the rocks making the Natural Bridge are the bottom part of a syncline.

التاريخ

الجسر الطبيعي بريشة فردريك إدوين تشرش، 1852

The Natural Bridge was a sacred site of the Native American Monacan tribe, who believed it to be the site of a major victory over pursuing Powhatans centuries before the arrival of Europeans in Virginia.

In March 1742, a frontiersman named John Howard — along with his son and others — was commissioned by Governor Gooch to explore the southwest of Virginia as far as the Mississippi River. The party followed Cedar Creek through the Natural Bridge, then floated in buffalo-skin boats down the New, Coal, Kanawha, and Ohio rivers to the Mississippi.

It is alleged that George Washington also came to the site in 1750 as a young surveyor. To support claims that Washington surveyed the area, tour guides claim the initials "G.W." on the wall of the bridge, 23 قدم (7.0 م) up, were carved by the future president. Legend also has it that George Washington threw a rock from the bottom of Cedar Creek over the bridge. In 1927, a large stone was found, also engraved "G.W." and bearing a surveyor's cross, which historians accepted as proof that he indeed surveyed the bridge.

توماس جفرسون اقتنى 157 فداناً من الأرض تضم الجسر الطبيعي من الملك جورج الثالث من إنگلترة بمبلغ 20 شلن في 1774. He called it "the most Sublime of nature's works". Jefferson built a two-room log cabin, with one room reserved for guests, beginning its use as a retreat. While President, in 1802, he personally surveyed the area. Many famous guests stayed here, including John Marshall, James Monroe, Henry Clay, Sam Houston, and Martin Van Buren.

Natural Bridge, Virginia, oil on canvas, David Johnson, 1860. Reynolda House

Natural Bridge was one of the tourist attractions of the new world that Europeans visited during the 18th and 19th centuries. Vacationing guests from all over the world took day trips from Natural Bridge on horseback or horse-drawn carriages to explore the countryside. In 1833, a new owner erected the Forest Inn to accommodate the increasing number of people.

The bridge had considerable notoriety during the 19th century. Herman Melville alluded to the bridge in describing Moby-Dick: "But soon the fore part of him slowly rose from the water; for an instant his whole marbleized body formed a high arch, like Virginia's Natural Bridge..." William Cullen Bryant, another American literary figure, said that Natural Bridge and Niagara Falls were the two most remarkable features of North America. During the 1880s Natural Bridge was a resort owned by Colonel Henry Parsons, who also owned the nearby Rockbridge Inn.

In 1927 a nocturnal lighting display of the arch and gorge was designed by Samuel Hibben and Phinehas V. Stephens, illuminating engineers with the Westinghouse Company. The display was formally switched on by President Calvin Coolidge in a 1927 inaugural ceremony. The original display has since been replaced with a sound and light show depicting the biblical seven days of the Creation as described in Genesis.

In 2013, nearly 1,500 أكرs (6.1 kم²), including the bridge, were slated to be sold at auction. To prevent piecemeal development of the landmark, the Virginia Conservation Legacy Fund (VCLF) purchased the bridge, hotel, and surrounding land for $9.1 million, made possible by a loan from the Virginia Clean Water Revolving Loan Fund. When the VCLF soon found itself unable to make payments on that loan, the Commonwealth of Virginia offered to manage the property as a Virginia State Park.

الجسر الطبيعي، المنتزه الولائي

Natural Bridge State Park officially opened on September 24, 2016. As a state park, the property is managed by the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, although it remains owned by the VCLF; it is the only state park operating on privately owned land. The property will be transferred to state ownership after the original loan has been paid in full. VCLF continues to both own and manage the nearby Natural Bridge Hotel and Natural Bridge Caverns.

انظر أيضاً

List of bridges on the National Register of Historic Places in Virginia
List of National Historic Landmarks in Virginia
List of Virginia state parks
National Register of Historic Places listings in Rockbridge County, Virginia

الهامش

^ نطقب:NRISref
^ "Natural Bridge". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Archived from the original on 2012-10-10. Retrieved 2008-06-27.
^ Spencer, Edgard W. ,1968, Geology of the Natural Bridge, Sugarloaf Mountain, Buchanan, and Arnold Valley quadrangles, Virginia: Report of Investigations 13, Virginia Division of Mineral Resources, Charlottesville, VA, 55 p. and أربعة plates.
^ Willis. Carrie Hunter; Walker, Etta Belle (1937). "Natural Bridge". . pp. 81–83.
^ Brown, Jr., Stuart E. (1965), Virginia Baron: The Story of Thomas 6th Lord Fairfax, Berryville, Virginia: Chesapeake Book Company, pp 98-99.
^ Bryant, William Cullen (1894). (in الإنجليزية). D. Appleton. p. 41. Retrieved 13 February 2017.
^ Dianne and Joseph Pierce (July 1994). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Rockbridge Inn" (PDF). Virginia Department of Historic Resources.
^ Hibben, Samuel G. and Stephens, Phinehas V. The illumination of the Natural Bridge of Virginia, Transactions of the Illuminating Engineering Society, vol. 22, 1927, 1158-1164.
^ Hammack, Laurence (September 24, 2016). "Rockbridge County's famous landmark becomes Natural Bridge State Park". The Roanoke Times. Retrieved January 1, 2017.
^ Lucas, Rachel (September 24, 2016). "Natural Bridge officially becomes a state park, affiliated with National Park Service". WSLS.com. Retrieved January 1, 2017.