Free previewStop 4 of Sleepy Hollow: The Legend Walk
The Bridge in Irving's Chase
You're at the Headless Horseman Bridge, with the Old Dutch Church up the slope, the church you've just left. Look down at the water, then back up toward that old stone church. In Washington Irving's story, this short stretch near the churchyard is where the most famous chase in American fiction ends.
Irving published "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" in 1820, while living in Birmingham, England, an ocean away from this valley. He set it around 1790. His hero, if you can call him that, is Ichabod Crane, a tall, skinny, deeply superstitious schoolteacher from Connecticut. Ichabod wants to marry Katrina Van Tassel, the only daughter of a rich farmer, and if we're honest he loves her father's farm at least as much as he loves her. His rival is a big, swaggering local everyone calls Brom Bones.
That's the opening. The rest plays at stop 4 of Sleepy Hollow: The Legend Walk (3 min in all). Unlock the tour to hear it all, or try stop 1 free first.
