Qualla: Lynchburg, Virginia https://qualla.com/lynchburg-virginia en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:06 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/x/s/lynchburg-virginia-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Lynchburg, Virginia https://qualla.com/lynchburg-virginia Lynchburg, Virginia: Introduction https://qualla.com/lynchburg-virginia/ Photo credit Northern-Virginia-Photographer, CC0. John Lynch was seventeen years old in 1757 when he started running a ferry across the James River. He was the son of Quaker farmers, and the ferry was a practical matter — there was no good way to cross the river between Richmond and the Blue Ridge, so he built one. By 1786 the Virginia General Assembly chartered a town on his land and named it after him. Despite a stubborn rumor, neither John nor the town has any connection to the word "lynching" — that may have originated with his older brother Charles, a Revolutionary-era militia officer. The city John Lynch's ferry started grew up on seven hills above the James, made its fortune on tobacco, and survived the Civil War as a Confederate supply depot rather than a battlefield. Today about 79,000 people live here, on hills called College, Garland, Daniel's, Federal, Diamond, White Rock, and Franklin.

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Image: Northern-Virginia-Photographer | CC0

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/x/s/lynchburg-virginia-wp/dnxs-lynchburg-virginia-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Lynchburg, Virginia: Seven Hills, One River https://qualla.com/lynchburg-virginia/ Photo credit Northern-Virginia-Photographer, CC0. The James River runs east through central Virginia from the Blue Ridge to the Chesapeake Bay, and Lynchburg sits on the south bank where Blackwater Creek joins it. The seven hills nickname is literal — the city climbs and descends and climbs again, with downtown sitting low along...

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]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/x/s/lynchburg-virginia-wp/dnxs-lynchburg-virginia-seven-hills-one-river.mp3 0:06 2 full Lynchburg, Virginia: Tobacco, Rail, and Brick https://qualla.com/lynchburg-virginia/ Photo credit Northern-Virginia-Photographer, CC0. Through the nineteenth century, Lynchburg made plug tobacco. Farmers across the Piedmont brought leaf in by wagon, factories along Fifth Street and the river processed and pressed it, and the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad and later Norfolk Southern hauled the finished product s...

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]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/x/s/lynchburg-virginia-wp/dnxs-lynchburg-virginia-tobacco-rail-and-brick.mp3 0:06 3 full Lynchburg, Virginia: Layers of History https://qualla.com/lynchburg-virginia/ Photo credit Loslazos, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Old City Cemetery, established in 1806 on land John Lynch donated, holds an estimated 18,000 to 20,000 burials — roughly two-thirds of them African American, including more than 90% of Lynchburg's enslaved and free Black residents from 1806 to 1865. Point of Honor, the 1815 C...

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Image: Loslazos | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/x/s/lynchburg-virginia-wp/dnxs-lynchburg-virginia-layers-of-history.mp3 0:06 4 full Lynchburg, Virginia: A City Reshaped https://qualla.com/lynchburg-virginia/ Photo credit Gregory Koch, CC BY-SA 4.0. The modern story of Lynchburg has been reshaped by Liberty University, founded in 1971 by Jerry Falwell Sr. The university now enrolls roughly 96,000 students between its residential campus and online programs, and its 275-foot Freedom Tower has surpassed the 1931 Allied Arts Bui...

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Image: Gregory Koch | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/x/s/lynchburg-virginia-wp/dnxs-lynchburg-virginia-a-city-reshaped.mp3 0:06 5 full