Markers of History

Colonial Parkway mark­ers
The Isthmus

Location: Colonial National Historic Pkwy, Williamsburg, VA 23185

Visited: July 4, 2009, 1:30pm

Transcription of  marker: This mod­ern road crosses to Jamestown about on line with a nat­ural isth­mus which existed in Colonial times. The sandy strip that made Jamestown a “semi-island” was washed away in the 1700’s.

My impres­sions: At last, we’re draw­ing near to Jamestown. It is inter­est­ing to see what water does to land, espe­cially so close to the coast. Having spent most of my life con­sid­er­ably inland from the ocean, I’m not quite used to the divi­sions between land and water being quite so change­able as they are around here (even if I’m largely talk­ing about events of hun­dreds of years ago). I also have to think: Don’t you think the word isth­mus is a funny-sounding word? It cer­tainly doesn’t roll off my tongue easily!

I’m also look­ing for­ward to this blog’s posts arriv­ing at Historic Jamestowne. It was an inter­est­ing place to walk around, though my sta­mina gave out before I ran out of mark­ers! A return trip is in the cards for the future, I’m sure.