What is so New about this River?

I am not sure if I see a train in the picture on this post card. There are, however, train tracks and what looks like a puff of smoke.That is good enough for me to keep this post card. It shows a set of tracks following along the New River in West Virginia. https://www.nps.gov/neri/learn/historyculture/index.htm tells us that there is now a National Park along this river. There is a page of history on this webiste and this is what it says: "The New River is like a ribbon tying together all the people, places, and events sharing its course through time. New River Gorge National Park and Preserve protects a rich variety of this history: from the subsistence lives of the native peoples and the later pioneers, to the coming of the railroad and the many peoples involved in the ensuing boom and bust of the coal mining and logging industries. You can visit the remains of the former boomtown of Thurmond, retrace the path of pioneer Mary Draper Ingles' amazing journey, learn of the legend and the facts of the "Steel Driving Man", John Henry, or read the oral history of an immigrant coal miner from the 1800s. The coming of the railroad through New River Gorge and southern West Virginia was the key event in shaping the modern history of this region. The construction of the Chesapeake and Ohio railroad from the Virginia border through the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia to the Ohio River was a monumental undertaking. Working from both ends of the state the workers spent three years digging and grading the rail bed, hand drilling and blasting the tunnels, and building the bridges and laying the tracks. Using hand tools and explosives, with horses and mules helping with the heaviest loads, these men literally carved the pathway for the railroad through the rugged mountains by hand. One of the greatest legends of world folklore was born from these workers and their enormous task; John Henry "The Steel Driving Man". So... what is so new about this river? I did not know that the legend of John Henry was born here!

The post card was published by the Asheville Post Card Company out of Asheville, North Carolina. From 1921 to 1982 they were a major publisher of linen postcards that went on to produce photochromes. This post card is one of their linen post cards. The front is very linen; the back not so much. Their cards were manufactured by many different printers. This firm seems to have been founded by Lamar Campbell LeCompte and J.L. Widman though Widman soon left the company. LeCompte may have been publishing postcards in Ashville going back to 1910, the year he moved there. After LeComte’s death in 1977 the company continued to publish postcards as well as sell novelties, but they were eventually taken over by Aerial Photography Services.