Lynchburg, VA news and local guide

Anglo-Americans first settled the site in 1757. The city is named for its founder, John Lynch, who at about 17 started a ferry across the James River to carry traffic to and from New London, where his parents had settled. The "City of Seven Hills" grew up on the hills around Lynch's Ferry, and the General Assembly recognized the town in October 1786. The James River Company, incorporated the year before to improve the river down to Richmond, the new capital, gave George Washington stock, which he donated to charity. Shallow-draft James River bateaux carried goods down to Richmond, though rocks, fallen trees and flood debris made the river costly to keep open. Lynchburg grew as a tobacco market, then a commercial and later an industrial center, and the state eventually built a canal and towpath along the river to get boats around the falls at Richmond. Sources Wikipedia: Lynchburg, Virginia