Let there be light...
Tuesday evening, I found myself sitting on an uncomfortable bench on an asphalt pathway in the bottom of a small gorge, setting up my camera on a tripod, waiting for the sun to set and the darkness to be complete. Thankfully, there weren't any mosquitoes, or if there were, they weren't bothering me. My daughters bounced from lap to lap, impatient for the the show to begin. In the growing darkness, the shape of the rocks and trees in front of us slowly faded together into near solid blackness.
This was Natural Bridge, Virginia, one of America's first tourist attractions. George Washington carved his initials here and Thomas Jefferson owned the place, building the first guest house at this location in 1803. Carved by the seemingly insignificant stream next to the path we were sitting on, this is a natural formation on a massive scale. It is 215 feet from the top of the bridge to the stream bed. The bridge itself is 40 feet thick and spans some 90 feet from one side of the gorge to the other (carrying U.S. Route 11 across the gap!). To stand under the bridge and look up some 170 feet at the rock while a truck rumbles over your head is to experience a very distorted sense of scale.
We had planned to visit here as one of our brief summer trips. When my MIL heard of our plans, she decided to join us, as this is a favorite location of hers. On the other hand, I had never been here before, and had only an inkling of what to expect. We left my MIL's house about mid-afternoon, stopping in Lexington to check into our hotel and get some dinner. We arrived at Natural Bridge about a half-hour before sunset, bought our tickets and hiked down to the valley floor. My MIL insisted that we needed to see the "Creation Drama" light show performed nightly. The formation is illuminated with a variety of colored lights, choreographed to a combination of music and narration from the first chapter of Genesis.
Eventually, the time for the show arrived. The narrator provided a brief history of Natural Bridge, and then the show began, "In the beginning..." I began taking long exposure pictures with my remote shutter release, while watching the formation change dramatically with the various changes in the lighting. The lighting effects were stunning, and some of the music was quite moving, but I found myself a bit puzzled by the links to Genesis. Somehow the lighting and music just didn't seemed terribly related to the passages being recited. But otherwise it was an impressive show. I haven't taken the time to review my pictures to see how they came out, but hopefully there will be one or two good shots in the bunch.
This was Natural Bridge, Virginia, one of America's first tourist attractions. George Washington carved his initials here and Thomas Jefferson owned the place, building the first guest house at this location in 1803. Carved by the seemingly insignificant stream next to the path we were sitting on, this is a natural formation on a massive scale. It is 215 feet from the top of the bridge to the stream bed. The bridge itself is 40 feet thick and spans some 90 feet from one side of the gorge to the other (carrying U.S. Route 11 across the gap!). To stand under the bridge and look up some 170 feet at the rock while a truck rumbles over your head is to experience a very distorted sense of scale.
We had planned to visit here as one of our brief summer trips. When my MIL heard of our plans, she decided to join us, as this is a favorite location of hers. On the other hand, I had never been here before, and had only an inkling of what to expect. We left my MIL's house about mid-afternoon, stopping in Lexington to check into our hotel and get some dinner. We arrived at Natural Bridge about a half-hour before sunset, bought our tickets and hiked down to the valley floor. My MIL insisted that we needed to see the "Creation Drama" light show performed nightly. The formation is illuminated with a variety of colored lights, choreographed to a combination of music and narration from the first chapter of Genesis.
Eventually, the time for the show arrived. The narrator provided a brief history of Natural Bridge, and then the show began, "In the beginning..." I began taking long exposure pictures with my remote shutter release, while watching the formation change dramatically with the various changes in the lighting. The lighting effects were stunning, and some of the music was quite moving, but I found myself a bit puzzled by the links to Genesis. Somehow the lighting and music just didn't seemed terribly related to the passages being recited. But otherwise it was an impressive show. I haven't taken the time to review my pictures to see how they came out, but hopefully there will be one or two good shots in the bunch.