 James River Canal Near the Mouth of the North River click on title for larger image |
"This Canal view was taken near the mouth of North River. This Canal is winding through a very romantic part of Virginia, and will amply repay a trip along this water line to enjoy the scenery. Sometimes this scenery is bold and grand; then again modest and unpretending, but still fascinating. From lofty and rugged mountains the view is changed to cultivated fields, with neat farm-houses dotting the surface. The River, too, presents the same change. Sometimes it dashes furiously through the mountain passes, and then again, in the open country, glides smoothly and silently on.
"In the back ground of this view there is a high ridge of mountains, which are covered on the summit with white rocks, giving the appearance of the top being covered with snow; in the middle ground, the lovely farms, with their houses on the banks of the river, which at this point has a steady flow, as if preparing for the wild rush through the mountain; and in the front ground the Canal, with the clear reflection of the river-all of which combine to make a picture of exceeding beauty. The artist, leaving the Natural Bridge, traveled on foot to the various points represented, and has rarely seen so much to admire at one view, and all so happily blended." |
Looking east with the James River on the right and the James River and Kanawha Canal next to it, Beyer rendered another example of technolgical advancement in the face of nature. While not necessarily obvious in this print, mounatins loom over the canal and the river takes a wild plunge through the Blue Ridge just out of view.
Catching the light of the setting sun, the rocky mountains in the background are the Three Sisters Knobs with the Blue Ridge just visible beyond. On this side of the Three Sisters and behind the large buildings on the lowland runs the North (now Maury) River, with north and upstream to the left. The lowland area is the western edge of what is now Glasgow, Virginia, near the southern tip of Rockbridge County, about five miles east of Natural Bridge.
In the foreground a canal boat being towed by two mules is approaching lock 18 which will lower the boat into the James River to be towed from shore around the point at the center of the scene, across the North River and then, through lock 17 back into the canal to continue to Lynchburg. Note the lamp post at the lock and the lock-keeper's white frame house. In the distance another canal boat is being towed upstream.
The canal had recently been completed this far and was enjoying it's heyday. Unfortunately for the canal and it's investors the railroads spreading throughout the state would doom the canals to oblivion. Three decades after Beyer's visit a railroad would be running along the canal towpath and the lock destroyed.
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