Brown's Island lies under your feet, an artificial island on the James River in Richmond, Virginia. It was formed in 1789 during construction of the Haxall Canal. Today it is part of the city's James River Park System and a popular concert and festival venue.
The Rivanna Subdivision Trestle and the T. Tyler Potterfield Memorial Bridge cross over the island. A spillway between Brown's Island and Johnson's Island was filled in 1970, merging the two islands. A walkway extends south atop the old VEPCO Levee from the island into the James River, and another extends north along the Brown's Island Dam.
The island was named after Elijah Brown, who acquired the land in 1826, and was briefly known as Neilson's Island before its name returned to Brown's Island. In the early nineteenth century a private pleasure garden called Prior’s Gardens was built here. During the American Civil War the island was the home of the Confederate States Laboratory, which produced ammunition, friction primers, percussion caps.
Stand here and imagine the layers of use: canal-born industrial shaping, refined pleasure gardens, wartime laboratories, and the modern music and festivals that draw people now. The Rivanna Subdivision Trestle, the T. Tyler Potterfield Memorial Bridge, and the walkways threading south atop the old VEPCO Levee into the James River and north along the Brown's Island Dam wait before you.