It’s a warm summer night near Farmville, and visitors are admiring the sunset at High Bridge Trail State Park. It’s more than 1,200 acres of wooded land with an old rail line and bridge at its heart -- a 2,400-foot span connecting Cumberland to Prince Edward County. An earlier structure nearby was used by both armies in the Civil War.
“You have Lee retreating from the siege of Petersburg,” says Park Manager and chief story teller Daniel Jordan. “Grant and Lee are both aiming to get to High Bridge. That is their next goal. Lee goes there first, and when his men crossed the bridge he gave the order to burn it.”
General Grant found a smaller bridge for carriages. His men crossed, and Lee decided it was time to surrender. The new bridge was built with steel, opening in 1914.
In addition to history tours, the park organizes events for cyclists runners and hikers day and night. It hosts at least ten races a year along with more leisurely activities.
“We do Ride with the Ranger on Saturday," Jordan says. "We do nighttime bike rides, we were doing a Wednesday bike and brew. We do nature programs, owl calls, a junior ranger program.”
But the signature event comes on one weekend in June. At the peak of firefly mating season.
“It started with star gazing," he explains. "Somebody looked below, and they said, ‘Look at the stars beneath the bridge!’ It’s a joy to watch fireflies in your yard, but you get out here and there are 30 different species in the valley.”
“It’s like a galaxy of living stars below the bridge,” says Ranger Craig Guthrie.
“You can actually watch all the fireflies rise up from the tree line, and it’s just like fireworks in slow motion," adds visitor Michael Barnett.
When the event attracted over two thousand people on one weekend, the park decided to set a limit. Next year they’ll admit just 800 people per night with ten dollar tickets going on sale in March.
The park draws visitors from across the country. Cheryl Ellis came from Florida with her son to visit Hampden-Sydney College and decided to take a side trip. The scenery, she said, was spectacular.
“But the height is getting to me, so I’m going to go back,” she told Radio IQ.
There is, actually, a fence that keeps visitors on the bridge, and Ellis was eventually persuaded to cross 125 above the Appomattox River. Manager Jordan says they’ve never lost anyone, but they do require horseback riders to dismount.
“Because you would be higher than the railing," says Jordan. "If your horse threw you, you would be thrown from the bridge.”
For those who suffer a fear of crossing bridges of hanging out on high, a walk along the base of the bridge is possible. Swimming and fishing are allowed in the Appomattox River, and scientists from Longwood University regularly visit vernal pools created when bridge builders dug clay from the ground to make bricks.
“Dr. Henkanaththegedara comes out. He’s a micro biologist," says Park Manager Jordan. "He discovered a crayfish – a digger crayfish. I thought they should have called it the Henkanaththegedara, but he named it the digger crayfish, and this is a brand new species!”
Jordan says the park is an economic engine for the Farmville area, and the state has affirmed its faith in the High Bridge Trail – funding construction of a visitors center that will offer flush toilets and air conditioning to those who visit in the future.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
