There is a paved trail in Lynchburg that lets you walk from downtown out to the train station, along the James River and up Blackwater Creek through a wooded gorge, for thirteen and a half miles without ever needing to look both ways at a street. It is called Percival's Island Trail where it follows the river and the Blackwater Creek Trail where it climbs the creek, and together they thread through what would otherwise be one of the more car-dependent small cities in Virginia. Lynchburg sits on seven hills above the south bank of the James, two hours west of Richmond and twenty minutes north of where U.S. 460 meets U.S. 29. Amtrak's Crescent stops once a day on its run between New York and New Orleans. The Northeast Regional comes through twice. This is a town that rewards visitors who slow down for it.
Most visitors arrive by car, on U.S. 29 from the north or south, or by Amtrak at Kemper Street Station, a beautifully restored three-story former Southern Railway depot at 825 Kemper. The Northeast Regional runs twice daily north toward Washington, New York, and Boston, and the Crescent once daily on its New Orleans–New York route. The Virginia Breeze Piedmont Express bus and Greyhound use the same station. Driving in Lynchburg is a small adventure: streets change names without warning (Memorial Avenue becomes Fifth Street, Fort Avenue becomes Timberlake Road, Lakeside Drive becomes Forest Road), and there are three completely unrelated roads called Langhorne in different parts of town. The downtown core and the area around Liberty University are walkable. Most of the rest is not. The Greater Lynchburg Transit Company runs hourly bus routes that all funnel through Kemper Street.
The City of Seven Hills is exactly what it sounds like — College Hill, Garland Hill, Daniel's Hill, Federal Hill, Diamond Hill, White Rock Hill, and Franklin Hill — and they extend well past the original founding ridges to take in Candlers Mountain, where Liberty University sits. Summers are hot and humid with afternoons routinely hitting ninety degrees. Winters are cold enough to bring three or four foot-deep snowstorms a season. Locally the city is nicknamed "Drenchburg" for the way rain systems get stuck over the hills for days. Spring is short and unpredictable; autumn is the kindest season, with cool days in the forties and fifties and the Blue Ridge to the west turning red and gold. Wind here tends to come hard or not at all, and the warmest part of the afternoon, oddly, often arrives around five o'clock.
Downtown has the Academy Center of the Arts, occupying the 1905 Beaux-Arts Academy of Music where Sarah Bernhardt and Anna Pavlova once performed. Monument Terrace climbs the bluff at the foot of Court Street, honoring local soldiers from the Civil War through the modern wars. The Anne Spencer House on Pierce Street preserves the home and garden of the Harlem Renaissance poet who hosted Marian Anderson, Langston Hughes, Thurgood Marshall, and Martin Luther King Jr. in her backyard. Point of Honor on Daniel's Hill is an 1815 Federal mansion that takes its name from the dueling ground it was built on. Old City Cemetery, established 1806, is the city's most-visited historic site and holds one of the largest public heirloom rose collections in Virginia. About twelve miles west in Bedford County, Thomas Jefferson's octagonal retreat villa Poplar Forest is open for tours.
The Percival's Island and Blackwater Creek trails together form a 13.5-mile paved corridor through the city, accessible from Washington Street, Jefferson Street, or Langhorne Road. Liberty University maintains a separate trail system on Candlers Mountain, including hiking, mountain biking, and (improbably) a year-round synthetic ski slope called the Liberty Mountain Snowflex Centre — the only synthetic ski slope of its kind in the United States. The Lynchburg Hillcats play Class-A baseball at Calvin Falwell Field, affiliated with the Cleveland Guardians. Beyond the city: the Peaks of Otter and the Blue Ridge Parkway are about half an hour west. Appomattox Court House National Historical Park, where Lee surrendered to Grant, is twenty miles east. The National D-Day Memorial in Bedford honors the small Virginia town that lost more men per capita on D-Day than any community in America.
Lynchburg is an independent city in central Virginia, approximately 37.414 N, 79.142 W, on the south bank of the James River. The seven hills give the downtown a distinct topography from the air — look for the river, Blackwater Creek's gorge, and the Allied Arts Building and Liberty's 275-foot Freedom Tower as the two tallest structures. Nearest airport: Lynchburg Regional / Preston Glenn Field (KLYH) on the south side of town, served by American Eagle to Charlotte. Field elevation around 940 feet MSL.