Photohunters: Lock

The photohunters theme this week is Lock. I thought I would post about the Battery Creek Lock which I visited at the James River Park off the Blue Ridge Parkway in Bedford County Virginia a few years ago. I posted about this lock in 2007 but it seemed like such an obvious choice for the theme that I'm doing another post about it.
This lock which was used in the mid to late 1800s was restored in the 1960s. You can enlarge the photographs of the signs to make it easier to read, by clicking inside them.

I liked the fact that there were a lot of children stopping to read these signs when we were at the park. I think it's a very educational set up.
The Battery Creek Lock is part of the "James River and Kanawha system that was the main artery of trade between Richmond and the western valleys" in the nineteenth century, according to the Bedford, VA tourist site.

The photograph above is of the James River and I took this shot standing fairly close to the lock. "The James River flows through the mountains at this location creating a water gap in the Blue Ridge. . . . Historically water gaps like this provided a gateway for westward expansion."
I took the information about water gaps from a sign at the park. They do a good job of giving the visitors a lot of information both about the lock and the water gap.

Another interesting tid bit on the sign is that "over time the river has cut more deeply into the mountains, exposing geologic formations more than 500 million years old."
For other photohunters take on the theme, please visit the home of the Photohunt.