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Sometimes, only a clear vision of history can sharpen a focus on the horizon, history being the reference point for the common destination between generations.

Thus, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, looking to the past with an eye to the future, has declared endangered a corridor of "hallowed ground," from Gettysburg to Thomas Jefferson's Monticello. The group hopes to preserve a 150-mile swath of diverse, picturesque and historically significant land threatened by the sprawl of residential and commercial development.

Situated roughly along U.S. 15, south from Pennsylvania through Leesburg and Culpeper to Charlottesville, the corridor follows a course containing six presidential homes, an array of Civil War battlefields and soul-soothing Piedmont scenery.

As the population centers of Northern Virginia have encroached into once-pastoral and historically significant landscapes, a coalition of more than 100 conservation and other groups deserve praise for joining with the trust to advocate purchase of enough of the corridor to preserve its natural and historic character.

The current generation should pass on to those to come as much of an unspoiled portion of their common heritage as is humanly possible.