On the Lighter Side
Digging for Braddock's Gold
General Braddock left me a holiday surprise. If only I can get to it before the Queen.
Recently, I set out to find buried treasure. To my editor, I pretended as if I were writing a humorous article on the confusing layout of Braddock Rd. and what that means for astrophysics. In reality, I was secretly hunting for a spot "50 paces east of a spring, where the road runs north and south." If you've lived in Fairfax County, it's possible you've heard of Braddock's gold. The story says that General Edward Braddock, as he forged a road to Winchester in 1755 en route to Pennsylvania during the French and Indian War, buried two cannons full of gold somewhere in the vicinity of where Centreville now stands. Numerous articles have been written on the subject over the years, all of them saying largely the same thing. "Legend" is the …
In this Article:
David
9:32 pm on Sunday, November 28, 2010
The current alignment of Braddock Rd (SR620) is described here: http://novaroads.mjhale.com/history/braddockrd/index.html and here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_State_Route_620_%28Fairfax_and_Loudoun_Counties%29 and here http://historical.mytopo.com/getImage.asp?fname=Fairfax15nw.jpg&state=VA (the 1915 topographical map of the area). Looking at modern-day satellite imagery, it's not … more ›