Pedal and Path: Across the Continent Awheel and AfootThayer, George B. (George Burton)
History
Pedal and Path: Across the Continent Awheel and Afoot
Thayer, George B. (George Burton)
Bicycle touring; United States -- Description and travel
Leaving the canal at Williamsport, I followed along the road
towards Sharpsburgh, just in the rear of Lee's line of battle at
Antietam. After spending a little time at the National Cemetery, which
is on a hill that commands a fine view of the whole battle-field,
and on which, I was told, a part of Lee's artillery was stationed,
but out of ammunition, I rode around to Burnside Bridge. Not till
I saw that bridge did I fully realize where I was. A picture of it
appeared in Harper's Weekly twenty-four years ago, and all those
war sketches were so familiar to me, having made a strong impression
on my boyish memory, that when I passed a bend in the road, and the
three-arched stone bridge came in sight, I felt as if I was walking on
sacred ground. More lives were laid down in other parts of the field,
I did not know just where, but this spot I recognized instantly,
and remembered reading at the time of how much importance it was,
and I left it with a greater respect than I ever had for the brave
Connecticut men who faced death in that battle.
Getting back upon the tow-path again at one of the fords where Lee's
army slipped away across the Potomac into Virginia, I was soon at
Harper's Ferry. The brick building still remains in which so many men
were imprisoned by John Brown on the night and morning of his raid,
and I was shown the spot where he and his men shot down in a most
cold-blooded and unprovoked manner several defenseless citizens of
the place.
Reaching Baltimore by train I made a stop of a day and a half, but
couldn't resist the temptation, after so long an absence from home,
to step upon another train that brought me home to Hartford without
change.
Perhaps a few dry statistics of the trip may not be uninteresting
to wheelmen. During the trip the points of special interest visited
were the Hudson River and the Highlands, the Catskill Mountains,
Niagara, Pike's Peak, Salt Lake, Tahoe, the Calaveras Big Trees, the
Yosemite Valley, the California Geysers, Monterey, Columbia River,
Shoshone Falls, the Yellowstone Park, the Black Cañon, the Royal
Gorge, and Marshall Pass. The route was through twenty-three States
and Territories, and a stop of from one day to three weeks was made
in the principal cities in those States and Territories. The distance
traveled by wheel, rail, and steamer, was a little over eleven thousand
miles; the time nearly seven months.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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