Harper’s Ferry
I recently had the good judgment to choose to attend a photography workshop in Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia. We spent several hours walking the old streets, climbing stone stairs to the Harper Cemetery, going inside St. Peter’s Church, and walking along the river banks where there were spectacular views and ruins of times gone by. At the convergence of the Shenandoah River and the Potomac River, this is a place whose history scans many years and many different and significant events. Below is a summary provided by the National Park Service. If you want more, please visit their website at http://www.nps.gov/hafe/index.htm.
THE HISTORY OF HARPERS FERRY HAS FEW PARALLELS IN THE AMERICAN DRAMA. It is more than one event, one date, or one individual. It is multi-layered – involving a diverse number of people and events that influenced the course of our nation’s history. Harpers Ferry witnessed the first successful application of interchangeable manufacture, the arrival of the first successful American railroad, John Brown’s attack on slavery, the largest surrender of Federal troops during the Civil War, and the education of former slaves in one of the earliest integrated schools in the United States.