New River Gorge Bridge offers much to visitors

By Cheryl Keenan
For The Register-Herald

July 03, 2009 06:16 pm

— For those seeking to marvel at man’s sheer ingenuity and problem-solving skills, the New River Gorge Bridge majestically spans the New River between Fayetteville and Lansing. Travelers visit the bridge from around the world, stopping to examine the Western Hemisphere’s longest single-arch span.
The bridge, whose construction was completed October 22, 1977, is most popularly known for the event which carries its name, Bridge Day, and the hundreds of BASE jumpers, so named for the four objects from which they jump: Building, Antenna, Span, and Earth, who leap from its 876-foot height each October. New River Gorge Bridge Day is the state’s largest single day festival, and annually attracts 100,000-plus to the site in Fayette County. Bridge Day 2009 is set for Oct. 17 and will be the 30-year celebration of the event, during which the entire bridge is shut down and visitors may walk across the span, watching BASE jumpers floating to earth or whitewater rafters floating in the river below, riding a high line, shopping at the stalls of dozens of vendors and marveling at Southern West Virginia’s normally generous display of fall colors.
See the complete story in Saturday's edition of The Register-Herald