By Christopher J. Jackson
Register-Herald Reporter
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Wind from the gorge blows past your face as you shake from cars passing 25 feet above you. A feeling of uneasiness begins from your feet and moves its way up your spine, then lodging firmly in your stomach.
You pause for a moment as the shaking ceases, temporarily. Your hands, with white knuckles, hold tightly to the rails 24 inches apart as you summon up the courage to take another step. There’s still 2,500 more feet to the other side of the New River Gorge.
“Just another 100 feet,” are encouraging words from Benjy Simpson. He tells you not to look down, but the look down is the whole reason you got on this thing in the first place.
This will be a feeling for many adventure-seekers when Bridge Walk opens this spring. The new attraction will allow visitors to walk beneath the New River Gorge Bridge, 850 feet above the river, to the other side. The walkway stretches 3,030 feet.
“We are very excited about this opportunity to develop the New River Gorge Bridge as a year-round world-class adventure for people of all ages and abilities,” said Simpson, owner of Passages to Adventure and Bridge Walk’s managing partner.
“Bridge Walk will be the primary reason some visitors come to West Virginia, becoming an exclusive and distinctive product.”
The tour focuses on engineering, geology, breathtaking views, coal mining, wildlife, history and adrenaline. People must be at least 48 inches tall, at least 10 years old and under 310 pounds.
Simpson said the project is “evolutionary” and that nothing exists like this in the world, save for Bridge Climb in Sydney, Australia.
There are no steps during the entire tour. It begins at the Canyon Rim Visitors Center with a video on the formation of the gorge and construction of the bridge. Then people will travel the length of a football field on a walkway to a ramp beneath the bridge.
Adventurers will then be ushered up the ramp to be clipped onto a steel cable that runs the entire length of the bridge.
Simpson said they’re doing their best to make the tour accessible for the handicapped.
“We will attempt to work with handicapped, blind and deaf,” he said.
Once on the catwalk, it will be impossible for those on the tour to unclip themselves after they’ve been clipped in, Simpson said.
He added, “You’re ours for 3,030 feet.”
Two cables will run the length. One is for those on the tour and the other is for the guide so he or she can move back and forth in order to help others.
Simpson said they’re going “to start small and see how it grows.” At first, he said he believes they will run two to five trips a day of between 200 to 500 people.
Although the average American can walk a mile in 15 minutes, not everyone can. Simpson said each tour will go at the pace of those on it. He figures they’ll run between three to five hours.
“We’re not going to prod you like cattle,” he said. “It depends on how active and fit people are.”
Simpson said he expects a large number of guests. He said this will be a major attraction for older people.
“This will be year-round,” he said. “Bridge Walk will be excellent for people doing holiday traveling. A couple in their 70s from Indiana on their way to Florida drove here just to see the bridge and asked when Bridge Walk would be open.”
The only time it’ll be closed is on Christmas and Thanksgiving days. However, when it’s cold, rainy or windy, tours will not be given.
Simpson said they are encouraging “last-minute reservations” and their Web site, www.BridgeWalk.com, will notify those with reservations if tours will be given ahead of time.
This is also going to make the bridge more secure, he said. In the past it has been common for people to go beneath and under the bridge.
“We’re going to have cameras, alarm systems and infrared set up,” Simpson said. “The right of passage in this county will be gone.”
Bridge Walk is a team including Adventure on the Gorge, Jerry Cook and Ernie Kincaid, ACE Adventure Resort owners, Simpson and Benjy Simpson III and Bruce Vest.
Simpson said they hope for a ground-breaking sometime in the next couple of weeks.
Carly Norosky, who works in the marketing office with Ace Adventure, walked on the catwalk recently and said “it was awesome.”
“I was scared to death, but I didn’t regret it,” she said. “I mean how many times have you driven over that bridge, but I’ve experienced it that way.”
For more information visit www.BridgeWalk.com or call 304-574-1037.
— E-mail: cjackson@register-herald.com
