| On your right comes up the Shenandoah, having ranged along the foot
of the mountain a hundred miles to seek a vent. On your left approaches
the Potomac in quest of a passage also. In the moment of their junction
they rush together against the mountain, rend it asunder and pass off to
the sea... This scene is worth a voyage across the Atlantic.
This is how Thomas Jefferson described the view from here during a visit
to Harpers Ferry in 1783. Around 1860, the US Armory superintendent
ordered red sandstone supports placed under "Jefferson's Rock" because
it was "endangering the lives and properties of the villagers below." |
