Jefferson and the Natural Bridge
When
passing through what is now Rockbridge County, Virginia, on 23
August 1767, Thomas Jefferson viewed the Natural Bridge, probably
for the first time. At that time he took notes on the inside back
cover of his 1767 Memorandum Book. These notes were the basis
for Jefferson's famous description of this "most sublime of Nature's
works" in his Notes on the State of Virginia. By 1773 Jefferson
had taken steps to become the owner of the rock bridge and in
1774 he received a patent for a 157-acre tract which included
it (MB. 10 June 1773, cash accounts, 15 September 1773, legal
section; Land Patent Book, XLII, 657-68). Jefferson often thought
of building there "a little hermitage" where he might spend part
of every year (TJ to William Carmichael, 26 December 1786). Although
this project was never carried out, he did make at least three
more recorded visits to the bridge, in 1815, 1817, and 1821, and
possibly in 1781.
In 1809, a financially disastrous year, Jefferson tried to sell the tract, and he periodically leased it for saltpeter mining and use as a shot tower. By 1815, however, he had "no idea of selling the land. I view it in some degree as a public trust, and would on no consideration permit the bridge to be injured, defaced or masked from public view" (TJ to William Caruthers, 7 September 1809; 15 March 1815). The Natural Bridge was sold in 1833 as part of Jefferson's estate.
--Lucia C. Stanton, Monticello Research Department, April 1995
Pictured: Natural Bridge, 1808 engraving by J. C. Stadler, after William Roberts. Photo by H. Andrew Johnson