Natural Bridge No.1: View from the Arch of the Bridge Looking down the Creek, Rockbridge County, Virginia (Primary Title)
Joshua Shaw, American, born England, ca. 1777 - 1860 (Artist)
Unlike most depictions of Virginia’s celebrated Natural Bridge, this vista is from the top of the arch with an emphasis on the picturesque landscape of Rockbridge County below. A sole figure leans precariously over the ledge, recalling the same approach as described by the property’s owner, Thomas Jefferson, in Notes on the State of Virginia (1785):
“You involuntarily fall on your hands and feet, creep to the parapet and peep over it...It is impossible for the emotions, arising from the sublime, to be felt beyond what they are here: so beautiful an arch, so elevated, so light, and springing, as it were, up to heaven, the rapture of the Spectator is really indescribable!”
The artist, Joshua Shaw, purposefully sought-out this view in homage to Jefferson’s description. Both men found the geological site to be one of the young nation’s most unique and important natural wonders.
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