Easter Vacation – Day 3 of 5: Buchanan, VA
Bob and I spent three nights (April 17-20) in Waynesboro, Virginia. Waynesboro is located near where the Skyline Drive ends and the Blue Ridge Parkway begins. Our original plan was to stay in Waynesboro for four nights, but we departed a day early. I will explain why we left Waynesboro a day early in a future blog post.
The highlights on Day 3 (April 19) of our Easter vacation included a visit to Natural Bridge, walking on a swinging bridge in Buchanan and driving the Blue Ridge Parkway. Yesterday’s blog post provided photographs and details about our visit to Natural Bridge. Today’s blog post is about our brief stop in Buchanan VA.
From Natural Bridge we took Route 11/Interstate 81 to Buchanan VA, a distance of about 12 miles. According to the Internet, Buchanan is the ideal example of small town America. Buchanan’s Main Street is home to historic buildings dating from 1750-1950 that house general stores, specialty shops, indoor golf, antiques, art galleries, Inns, restaurants, banks, a pharmacy, book store and an historic theater. Buchanan is home also to the only swinging bridge that crosses the James River.
The bridge is 366 feet long and 57.5 feet tall.
Portions of the bridge date back to 1851.
Swinging Bridge over James River
Swinging Bridge over James River
Did you see the two men, one who was waving at me, in the first photograph? We waited until those two men had walked both ways across the bridge before we walked across the bridge.
Swinging Bridge over James River
Swinging Bridge over James River
Yes, the bridge did sway as we walked across it!
Click here to read about the historic Buchanan Swinging Bridge.
See the sign behind me? Our next destination was the Blue Ridge Parkway, the subject of an upcoming blog post.
The Beauty Around Us 
6 Responses to “Easter Vacation – Day 3 of 5: Buchanan, VA”
Goodness, that looked like a really interesting bridge. I don’t think I have ever been on a swing bridge before, at least not one that long. Wise of you not to go over until those men had finished using it, says I smiling. Great photos as always.
Back again as I wanted to tell you that I have just seen this bridge on Tanya’s blog. She has a real neat video about this area that I thought you would enjoy. Her link is:
http://monroega.blogspot.com/2014/04/random-5-friday-bierers-deli.html
oh denise pointed me your way! i live about 15 minutes from buchanan! i love buchanan. i have a million photos on my blog of buchanan 🙂 love your bridge shots!
NEAT…. I love Swinging Bridges. I grew up with a swinging bridge across our little river —so I have great memories of it… AND–we saw a neat Swinging Bridge when we were in the Shenandoahs… SPECIAL..
Great photos. Buchanan could be a little town like the one I grew up in in Virginia….
Hugs,
Betsy
Linda, the swinging bridge looks neat. It must have been fun crossing the river too. Sounds like a nice town to visit.. Thanks for sharing your trip!
That is some bridge. We missed it when we were in that area.