This is an autumn photo of "Backbone Rock" which is located just across the Tennessee state line from the small but very popular tourist town of Damascus, VA. The rock is several hundred yards long and approximately 75 feet high, with a tall mountain at one end of it and a raging river flowing around the other end. Taking a vehicle "around" the rock was not really an option, so...
A hole was hand-chiseled through the rock shortly after the turn of the 20th century in order to allow trains to pass through, but when they measured for the hole they forgot to account for the engines' smokestacks - hence the extra "notch" cut into the top of the arch during a re-do.
After a few years, the bulk of the area's timber had been harvested and the trains that hauled the logs to the sawmills in nearby Sutherland, TN and Damascus, VA were no longer needed. The railroad tracks were removed and replaced with a curvy two lane road that to this day carries travelers from the Damascus area through the rock and on down into Shady Valley, TN.
In the 1930's, men working for the Works Progress Administration built picnic shelters and hiking trails in the wooded areas near the rock, as well as two sets of steps leading up onto the rock itself. Today the area is a federal holding known as "Backbone Rock National Recreation Area". Visitors can climb up onto the rock and walk across it while looking down on the road and the river below.
