Existing comment:
A Changing Landscape:
The interaction of land, water and people
Over the past 400 years, the James River and surrounding land have changed dramatically. The most recent changes occurred by human hands, but the meandering James River set the stage.
It is 1611. You are standing on a peninsula overlooking the James River. The river is an important "highway" for early explorers permitting passage from the Chesapeake Bay to points further inaldn. The English settlers voyage upstream from Jamestown to establish the second English Settlement, Henricus. Unlike Jamestown, this new site provides fresh water and because of the high bluff along the narrow neck of the peninsula, a better defense.
It is the 1930s. Now you are standing on Farrars Island. The James River is a vital artery for commerce. To make the travel quicker and safer for ships heading to the Richmond Port, the Army Corp [sic] of Engineers digs a mile-long channel known as the Dutch Gap Cutoff. The channel enables ships to bypass the two meanders thereby eliminating seven river-miles, and it also created Farrars and Hatcher Islands.
It is the present. You are overlooking a freshwater wetland. The intervention of humans has changed the landscape dramatically. Farrars Island is now joined to the mainland. In front of you, where the James River once flowed; now a freshwater wetland exists. Behind you a bottomland forest probably flourished. Now, a mount for storing fly ash (a by-product of burning coal) rises above you. Further behind the fly ash mount and out of your side, a large tidal lagoon was created by the mining of sand and gravel. |