We hiked up to Jefferson Rock for the view, but there really wasn’t one due to all the tall trees. Turns out the real view is on the Maryland side of the river, quite high up on a cliff. This is a shot of the Potomac River after its confluence with the Shenandoah River.

“On your right comes up the Shenandoah, having ranged along the foot of the mountain a hundred miles to seek a vent. On your left approaches the Patowmac [Potomac], in quest of a passage also. In the moment of their junction they rush together against the mountain, rend it asunder, and pass off to the sea. … This scene is worth a voyage across the Atlantic,” were words spoken by Thomas Jefferson to describe the view from this point during a visit to Harpers Ferry in 1783.

Best to view in "Original" because other versions resized by Pbase are decidedly unsharp.

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Due to its strategic location at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers, Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, hosted the first ferry and then the first railroad bridge across the Potomac and served as the only rail link between the Northern and Southern states during the Civil War. It was also the site of the famous raid by abolitionist John Brown on the town’s arsenal in 1859 in the hope of starting a slave revolt across the South, which was put down by then-Lt. Col. Robert E. Lee. Brown was subsequently tried and hanged for treason.

Staircase Rapids from Jefferson Rock, posted earlier: