File:Potomac Water Gap in the Blue Ridge Mountains.jpg

Summary

Looking toward the Potomac Water Gap in the Blue Ridge Mountains from Mountville Road between Jefferson and Sunnyside in 2013. The gap is a familiar sight to us locals, located at the intersection of the states of Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland.

The history of the gap is inexorably tied to that of Harpers Ferry and the surrounding area. When Thomas Jefferson came to the town he remarked, while viewing the gap from Jefferson Rock on the ridge above the town, that "the view was worth a trip across the Atlantic." In 1859, Robert E. Lee, leading a detachment of Marines, passed through the gap en route to Harpers Ferry to put down John Brown's raid. During the American Civil War, the gap was used frequently by both Confederate and Union Armies to pass through the mountains and was the scene of fighting at the Battle of Harpers Ferry.

Today, like the town, the gap, in addition to a thoroughfare, is a tourist destination. It is part of two national parks, Harpers Ferry National Historical Park and the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park, and the scenic Appalachian Trail passes through it as well.

(Information from Wikipedia; Photo by Peter Wenner)