Is Natural Bridge the perfect symbol of America?
A few months into the coronavirus pandemic, my partner and I decided to take a vacation. The parameters were strict: The location had to be accessible by car, close enough that a picnic lunch and dinner would get us through the day, and sufficiently rural that we wouldnt be too dependent on the blessings of indoor plumbing. Given all that, Natural Bridge in Rockbridge County, Va., at the southern end of the Shenandoah Valley, moved up my bucket list a few dozen slots.  The nearly 90-foot-long limestone span was known in the annals of early America as the second-most-dramatic bit of scenery after Niagara Falls, and it became a popular tourist destination in the 19th century. Once owned by Thomas Jefferson, Natural Bridge became a popular subject for artists, including the great Hudson River School painter Frederic Edwin Church, and it was referenced in Herman Melvilles Moby Dick. And for us, it was only two picnics and one pit stop away.