The GEICO gecko was the star of an ad that played on the two-state nature of Bristol, Tennessee-Virginia’s State Street, the center of which is the border between the two states.
A Bristol, Tennessee-Virginia, cemetery may present the ultimate in knitted-together states: Legend has it that some are buried with their heads in Virginia and their feet in Tennessee.
Merchants in the two-state city of Bristol praise the Geico gecko for pumping up tourism in the state-straddling community a few years back.
The tiny green advertising icon passes beneath the famous Bristol Sign, and dances back and forth over the brass plates at the center of State Street, the mid-city thoroughfare along the Tennessee-Virginia state line.
“On this side of the road, it’s Virginia,” the gecko says in the commercial. “And on this side of the road, it’s Tennessee,” as he tries to determine whether this place should be called “Virginessee” or “Tenneginia.”
Fact is, Bristol is two distinct cities—with the larger in Tennessee and the smaller in Virginia. Still, it seems like one city, which shares the same library, newspaper, hospital and chamber of commerce.
It is also the home of the two-state East Hill Cemetery, where, it’s said, some folks have their heads buried in Virginia and their feet buried in Tennessee!
Want more state-straddling stories?
• South Holston Lake: Just a few miles east of Bristol, South Holston Lake spans 24 miles of the channel of the South Fork of the Holston River. And where it connects Tennessee and Virginia, you’ll find a state-line sign on a rock at Washington County Park.
That’s Washington County, Virginia, by the way. But that park stretches so far south—into the lake—that it actually occupies part of Sullivan County, Tennessee.
Another curiosity: Tennessee’s Cherokee National Forest oversees the national forest along this lake—even the tree-packed and sandy shores inside Virginia!
• New River: Kayakers better pack a fishing license for both Alleghany County, North Carolina, and Grayson County, Virginia, when venturing on the New River as the river zigzags across the state border several times.
• Cumberland Gap National Historical Park: It takes three states to contain the thousands of acres occupied by the Cumberland Gap National Historical Park: Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky.
Here, you’ll find a Tri-State Marker, where Virginia stretches as far west as Detroit. But, the only way you can get to those final few feet of the Old Dominion is to walk a trail—through Kentucky!
Just west of that marker, you’ll find the Cumberland Gap Tunnel on U.S. 25E, where you enter from Tennessee and exit into Kentucky—about a mile later.
The tunnel opened in 1996 for safety’s sake—and so park officials could restore the actual Cumberland Gap to how it looked in famed frontiersman Daniel Boone’s day of the 1770s.
Today, you can walk from Virginia to Kentucky and pass over the Cumberland Gap. To get a bird’s eye view of the actual Cumberland Gap, take a drive through Kentucky. “Then you walk into Virginia to get to the Pinnacle Overlook,” says Carol Borneman, a park ranger at Cumberland Gap.
Besides the gap, you can also enjoy a view into the town of Cumberland Gap, Tennessee. There, Cumberland Gap’s Iron Furnace stands in Virginia. But the parking lot is just a few yards south inside Tennessee.
The park’s Ridge Trail follows the Kentucky-Virginia border. Nearby, attractions like the Sand Cave and the Hensley Settlement are in Kentucky, yet commonly-used access points are in Virginia, Borneman says.
The White Rocks of Cumberland Mountain span Kentucky and Virginia. But, who’s keeping score? As Borneman puts it, “You’re simply bewildered when you’re here trying to figure out which state you’re in.”
• Breaks Interstate Park: Virginia and Kentucky share the Breaks Interstate Park, where the Russell Fork of the Big Sandy River cuts a gorge that runs its rocky course from state to state. Nearly all of the park’s developments are in Virginia; yet both states fund this place—one of only a handful of “interstate” parks in the United States.
• Great Smoky Mountains National Park: The famous park spans North Carolina and Tennessee. Here, in the wilderness, you can trace the state-line spine on the Appalachian Trail.
• East River Mountain Tunnel: Heading north on I-77, you say bye-bye to Bland County, Virginia, and pass below the Virginia-West Virginia border inside the mile-plus East River Mountain Tunnel, built in 1974. On the other side, you come out into Mercer County, West Virginia.
• The Bluefields: You’ll find a Bluefield in Mercer County, West Virginia, and another in Tazewell County, Virginia. Still, like Bristol, the neighboring Bluefields are recognized largely as one place: knitted together where Blue Ridge states interlock.
The story above appears in our January/February 2021 issue.
