The ‘Most Sublime of Nature’s Works’

Virginia’s Natural Bridge State Park boasts an architectural wonder not made by man, but shaped by nature

Considered an architectural treasure. "Natural Bridge" is depicted in oil on canvas by David Johnson, 1860, Reynolda House Museum of American Art. Public Domain

One of Virginia’s most amazing architectural treasures wasn’t formed by the hand of man at all, and it’s listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Thomas Jefferson once owned it. George Washington is said to have surveyed its location as a young lad of 17—though he was fully commissioned as a surveyor with a certification from the College of William & Mary. The future president, according to local lore, even carved his initials in the stone of it, though that story is simply not provable. Frederic Church made a painting of it as well.

Painting “Natural Bridge” by Frederic Edwin Church,1852. Public Domain