This trip was a significant first for us in that it was the first major outing on our Geeley Scooter. We travelled almost 40 miles, much further than intended because we got lost. All the roads had names but no directions to places. We did discover you can get quite cold on the scooter even at only 30mph.
 | Harpers
Ferry is at the junction of the states of Maryland, Virginia and West
Virginia. It is also a prominent historical site from the Civil War. This
is because the Civil War is reputed to have been triggered by John Brown
(of John Brown's Body) who raided the armoury trying to acquire 100,000
rifles to arm the southern confederation. He failed and was executed but
the conflict had been triggered. |
| Most of the buildings in the old town, which is now
administered by the National Parks Service, have been turned into museums.
These cover many aspects of life prior to and during the Civil War.
Harpers Ferry was a major manufacturing centre prior to the Civil War but
lost its industry afterwards. |  |
 | It
is at the confluence of two major valleys so many of the buildings are
perched on the hillside between the two valleys and the Potomac and
Shenandoah rivers which meet here and were responsible for the town's
earlier prosperity and strategic importance. |
| The valleys were also vital in the early development of the
railways. Since Harpers Ferry was a junction between rivers and valleys it
inevitably became a railway junction. The bridges across the river are a
major feature of the landscape. Here a rare Amtrak passenger service
departs with its double decker passenger cars. |  |
 | But
it is the majesty of the rivers which has dominated life here for
centuries. There were many major floods here over the years and it was a
major flood in 1936 which finally wiped out the mills and manufacturing
here. |
|