The following beautiful sketch is from the pen of the Rev. John Todd, of Philadelphia, author of the Student’s Manual, Simple Sketches, and other admired works.

ROCK BRIDGE.

On a lovely morning towards the close of spring, I found myself in a very beautiful part of the great valley of Virginia.  Spurred on by impatience, I beheld the sun rising in splendour, and changing the blue tints on the tops of the lofty Alleghany mountains into streaks of purest gold; and nature seemed to smile in the freshness of beauty.  A ride of about fifteen miles, and a pleasant woodland ramble of about two, brought myself and my companion to the great NATURAL BRIDGE.

Although I had been anxiously looking forward to this time, and my mind had been considerably excited by expectation, yet I was not altogether prepared for this visit.  This great work of nature is considered by many as the second great curiosity in our country, Niagara Falls being the first.  I do not expect to convey a very correct idea of this bridge; for no description can do this.

The Natural Bridge is entirely the work of God.  It is of solid limestone, and connects two huge mountains together, by a most beautiful arch over which there is a great wagon road.  Its length from one mountain to the other is nearly eighty feet, its width about thirty-five, its thickness forty-five, and its perpendicular height above the water is not far from two hundred and twenty feet.  A few bushes grow on its top, by which the traveller may hold himself as he looks over.  On each side of the stream, and near the bridge, are rocks projecting ten or fifteen feet over the water, and from two hundred to three hundred feet from its surface, all of limestone.  The visitor cannot give so good a description of the bridge as he can of his feelings at the time.  He softly creeps out on a shaggy projecting rock, and, looking down a chasm from forty to sixty feet wide, he sees, nearly three hundred feet below, a wild stream foaming and dashing against the rocks beneath, as if terrified at the rocks above.  This stream is called Cedar Creek.  He sees under the arch, trees whose height is seventy feet; and yet, as he looks down upon them, they appear like small bushes of perhaps two or three feet in height.  I saw several birds fly under the arch, and they looked like insects.  I threw down a stone, and counted thirty-four before it reached the water.  All hear of heights and of depths, but they here see what is high, and they tremble, and feel it to be deep.  The awful rocks present their everlasting butments, the water murmurs and foams far below, and the two mountains rear their proud heads on each side, separated by a channel of sublimity.  Those who view the sun, the moon, and the stars, and allow that none but God could make them, will here be impressed that none but an Almighty God could build a bridge like this.