Rockbridge County is located in the southern end of the great Valley of Virginia
in the western part of the Commonwealth. The county is bounded by the Blue Ridge mountains to the east and the Alleghenies to the west. Lexington is in the geographic center of the county. Buena Vista lies on the eastern edge of Rockbridge County, at the foot of the Blue Ridge. Washington DC is 150 miles to the northeast, Richmond, Va. is 140 miles to the east, and Roanoke, Va. is 50 miles to our southwest.

The county gets its name from the Natural Bridge of Virginia, a massive stone arch that spans Cedar Creek in the southern part of the county.

For centuries, the Rockbridge area has been a natural highway from the northeast to the rich lands west of the Appalachian Mountains. The Cherokee and Monacan Indian tribes lived in the area prior to its settlement by European colonists beginning in the 1730s.

Most of the early European settlers, Scotch-Irish and Germans, came south down the valley from Pennsylvania in search of more land. Several large land grants, notably one to Benjamin Borden, which encompassed most of present-day Rockbridge, stimulated settlement in the 1740s. Grantees were required to induce a certain number of families to settle on the granted land.

In 1777, Rockbridge County was established, and the town of Lexington chartered as the county seat. The town was named for the Massachusetts town famous for the "shot heard 'round the world."

An event, which would shape Lexington up to the present, occurred in 1782, when a small private school was moved from Augusta County to Lexington to become Liberty Hall Academy. The struggling institution's future was assured in 1796 by George Washington, who gave it $50,000 worth of canal stock, at that time the largest bequest to a college in the history of the new nation. The board of trustees renamed the school Washington College in the general's honor. The school moved shortly thereafter to its present location on a ridge on the west side of Lexington after the Liberty Hall building burned. The ruins of Liberty Hall still stand just north of Rt. 60 at the western edge of town.

In 1839, the Virginia legislature established Virginia Military Institute at Lexington in what had previously been a state arsenal. VMI has educated thousands of citizen-soldiers in its more than 150-year existence, including Gen. George C. Marshall, Gen. George S. Patton and Adm. Richard E. Byrd.

The Civil War had a devastating effect on Rockbridge County and its people. Raiding federal troops burned VMI in 1864. Graduates of VMI and Washington College served with distinction in many campaigns of the war, and the VMI Corps of Cadets fought as a unit at the Battle of New Market. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, a professor at VMI until the war, is remembered as one of history's greatest military strategists. Jackson is buried in Jackson Memorial Cemetery, along with many other Civil War veterans.

After the war, Gen. Robert E. Lee was persuaded to come to Lexington to serve as president of Washington College. Lee revitalized the school, modernized the curriculum and encouraged reconciliation between North and South. After his death in 1870, the school's trustees renamed it Washington and Lee University.

Around 1890, a speculative boom hit western Virginia. Development companies established numerous towns, with a grand hotel as a centerpiece. Streets were laid out and lots sold, and resold, at ever inflating prices. Buena Vista and the towns of Glasgow and Goshen were all founded as a result of the boom. When the bubble burst, many of these boomtowns stagnated. Buena Vista weathered the crash and became the industrial center of the county. The boom-era hotel is now Main Hall at Southern Virginia University.

Change in the twentieth century was more incremental. Industrialization of the south, especially after World War II, brought new jobs, though agriculture remained the leading economic activity in the county. The interstate highway system made the Rockbridge area more accessible. A renewed interest in heritage and preservation brought people to see our historical sites, preserved buildings and natural beauty. The Virginia Horse Center was built near Lexington in the mid-1980s and has brought horse enthusiasts to the area to visit and to relocate.

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the Rockbridge area is more prosperous then ever in its history. In coming years, its citizens will address concerns over unprecedented growth, land use questions, transportation and maintenance of the quality of life that keeps long-time residents here and draws new residents to the area.

Demographics
(Note-Rockbridge County figures do not include the Cities of Lexington or Buena Vista.)