View from Jefferson Rock

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Jefferson Rock sits on a cliff above the point where the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers meet at Harpers Ferry, and Thomas Jefferson famously described the view from it in his 1785 "Notes on the State of Virginia," calling the sight worth a trip across the Atlantic. The overlook gave travelers and artists a wide prospect of the water gap cut through the Blue Ridge, a scene that became one of the most painted and photographed spots in the young nation. The vantage also looks down toward the town's historic streets and the federal armory grounds, where the rivers' confluence once shaped industry and transport. Pictures of this view help show how the landscape was admired long before the Civil War turned the town into a strategic prize.

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