First Balloon Flight in Virginia - Williamsburg, VA
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archway
N 37° 16.427 W 076° 42.795
18S E 348103 N 4126619
This Virginia highway marker on the campus of The College of William and Mary commemorates the first balloon flight to take place in the state.
Waymark Code: WM79F1
Location: Virginia, United States
Date Posted: 09/23/2009
Views: 7
The marker is located at the intersection of Richmond Road and Stadium Drive on the campus of The College of William and Mary near Colonial Williamsburg. The inscription on the marker reads:
On May 7, 1801, J. S. Watson, a student at William and Mary, wrote a letter detailing attempts at flying hot air balloons on the Court House Green. The third balloon, decorated with sixteen stars, one for each of the existing states, and fueled with spirits of wine, was successful. Watson wrote, "I never saw so great and so universal delight as it gave to the spectators." This is the earliest recorded evidence of aeronautics in the Commonwealth.
The text below provides additional detail (Source: Higher Education in Review 2005, article by Jodi Fisler)
"Historically speaking, the students at William and Mary were no strangers to the air. In 1786, a group of students formed a balloon club with the support of William and Mary’s president, the Reverend James Madison. For several years, the club conducted experiments and in 1801 finally succeeded in raising a colorful, home-made balloon on Williamsburg’s Court House Green. A marker on the corner of Richmond Road and Stadium Drive claims that this flight represents "the earliest evidence of aeronautics in the commonwealth”. Letters from flight historians at Edwards Air Force Base and the National Air and Space Museum in 1982 affirmed that the William and Mary Balloon Club was very possibly the first organization of its kind at any institution of higher education in the world."
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