About Lynchburg Virginia

Lynchburg is an independent city located in the Commonwealth of Virginia, USA. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 65,269. The Bureau of Economic Analysis combines the city of Lynchburg with neighboring Campbell County for statistical purposes. Located in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Lynchburg is known as the "City of Seven Hills". Appomattox and Natural Bridge (Virginia) are nearby.

Lynchburg is the home of Randolph-Macon Woman's College, Lynchburg College, Liberty University, Central Virginia Community College, Christ College, and Virginia University of Lynchburg.

First settled in 1757, Lynchburg was named for its founder, John Lynch, who at the age of 17 started a ferry service at a ford across the James River. He was also responsible for Lynchburg's first bridge across the river, which replaced the ferry in 1812. Thomas Jefferson maintained a home near Lynchburg, called Poplar Forest. Lynchburg was established by charter in 1786 at the site of Lynch's Ferry on the James River. These new easy means of transportation routed traffic through Lynchburg, and allowed it to become the new center of commerce for tobacco trading. It was a center of commerce and manufacture in the 19th century. Chief industries were tobacco, iron and steel. Transportation facilities included the James River and Kanawha Canal and, later, four railroads.

During the American Civil War, Lynchburg, which served as a Confederate supply base, was approached within one mile by the Union forces of General David Hunter as he drove south from the Shenandoah Valley. Hunter was driven back by the forces of Confederate General Jubal Early on June 18, 1864.

Lynchburg became known in the latter 20th century as the home of the televangelist Jerry Falwell, who formed the "Moral Majority" in the early 1980s. Soon after he established Liberty University. It was also where Dr. Charles Browne Fleet introduced the first mass marketed over-the-counter enema, where the company he founded still manufactures laxative and bowel cleansing products, as noted in the company's website

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