The Antietam and Its Bridges, 1910 - The Annals of an Historic Stream #255355

When we think of those early settlers we must remember their relation to the outside world. Between them and the coast, with its towns and its shipping trade with Europe, was the blue wall of the Alleghany mountains, isolating the valley and making it a thing apart. It was entered only after a toilsome journey, and the people who settled in it cut themselves off, to a great extent, from the coast land to the East and the trading posts of the West. They found themselves in a cradle between the mountains, whose ranges to the east and west they somewhat inconsequently called the North and South mountains. Here they went patiently to work to establish settlements which Should be safe from Indian interference, and give them the easy subsistence which the fertility of the soil promised.