Everything before you has been shaped by the River.
The ancient river bank is the top of the hill before you. Floodwaters have slowly carved out the valley of the James. The Hollywood Cemetery is now 80 feet above the River.
The rocks in front of you have a dome-topped, curvy, turtle shell appearance. Mud in the water grinds off the edges. Mother Nature makes things rounded.
The islands in the distance are long and narrow-blunt at the upstream end and rounded at the other. The River trims the sides and carves a channel in the River beside it. But at the downstream end, where the water is blocked by the island, it slows down. It drops its load of sand and silt and creates a little sand bar. When tough trees and shrubs take root this sand is stabilized. Little at a time this becomes an extension of the island.
The straight line in front of you is a water pipe. It once served the Old Dominion Steel Plant on Belle Isle. (Behind you are what's left of some of the buildings and a fire hydrant. It still works and disperses water that has been waiting in the pipe for over ½ a century)>
The straight line in the distance on your left is the top of a dam —- north wing of the Belle Isle Dam. It once directed water to a hydroelectric power plant (which is not there now) and to the Albemarle Paper Company (later the James River Paper Company) which are the boxy structures straight ahead. Look carefully along the shoreline and you can see the outfall gate for the water once used in making paper. These buildings are now the headquarters of Dominion Virginia Power Company.
(sidebar)The rocks you see are part of a band of granite that stretches 1000 miles from New Jersey to Georgia. Here in Richmond they are exposed for 7 miles. Where rivers run across it there are rapids. The last mile here has the biggest drop and that's where the industries began. All other major cities in the mid-Atlantic are located along this pluton of granite ? and I-95 runs along the top!
(sidebar)This is a rich habitat for wildlifeUnderneath every rock there are aquatic insects. Mayfly and stone fly larva come out at night to lick off the day's thin growth of single celled algae. (You know it's there even when you can't see it —- that's what makes the rocks so slippery!) Fish feed on these at dawn and dusk when the movement begins and there is still enough light for the fish to see.
Behind every rock is a fish. Little ones eat the insects; big ones eat the little ones. When a fish is removed from one site, others come in to fill it —- a daily game of musical chairs. Because the habitat is stable and provides a constant supply of food, this is the richest concentration of life on the entire River.
Often out of sight are animals that eat fish. In springtime look for Great Blue Herons (long necks and legs) and Cormorants (black, fish-eating duck that holds its wings out to dry). In summer Osprey (look like a little bald eagle) circle and hover overhead. On occasion you can see otters and mink.
Sponsored by St. Catherine's Middle School - Earth Day 2012
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