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It's Bridge Day in Fayette County, Wv

In summary, on the 29th Annual day for nutty people to do something the rest of us think is a little bizarre, the New River Gorge Bridge in Fayette County, West Virginia closes one lane for "base jumping" enthusiasts. Thousands of people will flock to the bridge to see if they can witness the first person to die during Bridge Day.
The_Kitchen_Guy
Silver Member
12,458
The 29th Annual day for nutty people to do something the rest of us think is a little bizarre.

On US 19 in Fayette County, the New River Gorge Bridge crosses the New River at a height of 876 feet. The span itself is 1700 feet and is the second longest single-span, steel bridge in the world. With approaches, the total length is 3030 feet. (To put this into perspective, the top floor of the Chrysler Building is 899 feet above the surface of New York City. The Gateway Arch in St. Louis, at 630 feet, would fit underneath the bridge with 246 feet to spare!)

http://www.officialbridgeday.com/images/04bridge.jpg

The New River Gorge Bridge is actually in a national park, and something called "base jumping" is illegal in national parks.

http://www.officialbridgeday.com/images/04base2.gif

Since base jumpers are too tempted to use this bridge as a base to free-fall into the gorge before opening a parachute,
http://www.officialbridgeday.com/photos/10pgal.JPG
officials close one lane of the bridge on the third Saturday of October every year - that's today. Thousands of people will flock to the bridge, some just to walk on it, some to marvel at the view (it IS a stunning view, trust me) and I suppose others will go, hoping to see the fourth person in the history of Bridge Day, to fall to their death.

http://www.officialbridgeday.com/images/04crowd.jpg

I'm not going - even though I'm in "Wild & Wonderful" West Virginia (it says that on their license plates) I'm not going to Fayetteville today. But if you happen to hear about this on the news later today, you'll be able to say, "Oh, yeah. I knew about that."
 
OH! You're in WV??? Where are you? I'm from there. My heart is STILL there on a daily basis instead of here in this concrete hell.


I HEART WV!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
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  • #3
I'm Wheeling West Virgina - which takes a lot of energy. I'm just glad that I'm not Flushing New York.
 
I'll be Flushing NY later today. I'll be thinking of ya.
 
You could be in Blue Ball PA, which isn't far from Intercourse
 
OH LORD! I went to college near Wheeling - like fifteen minutes! West Liberty. Beautiful area to visit if you're in Wheeling - Oglebay Park. Then drive on up the hill. If you're from a rather flat area - you'll get a huge kick out of driving from Oglebay to West Liberty!!! Seriously - if you don't have anything to do - drive it.
 
Yeah, right!!!!!

Ewwwwwwwwww............I HATE bridges!!!!!!


YUK! Those people are insane!!!!!

Now, KG....you probably knew I'd be replying to THIS one!!! ;)
 
My Senior Trip was at the New River Gorge. 5 days of hiking, rappelling, whitewater rafting, and horseback riding through the mountains. It was a very fun, memories for a lifetime kind of trip. BUT I do remember getting sick having to cross the Gorge. I don't know if it was this bridge or not......but it was a very long way down!
 
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  • #9
Chris, I put it up just for you.Becky, it was this bridge. It's the only way across the gorge except for a 45 minute drive on the old, winding highway.
 
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  • #10
ChefLoriG said:
You could be in Blue Ball PA, which isn't far from Intercourse
Actually, it's Blue Bell, which is a northern 'burb of Philly. Intercourse is closer to Lancaster, and I've actually been there.
 
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  • #11
pamperedape said:
OH LORD! I went to college near Wheeling - like fifteen minutes! West Liberty. Beautiful area to visit if you're in Wheeling - Oglebay Park. Then drive on up the hill. If you're from a rather flat area - you'll get a huge kick out of driving from Oglebay to West Liberty!!! Seriously - if you don't have anything to do - drive it.
I haven't gotten up to Oglebay Park yet, but everyone around here raves about it. I've gone across the Wheeling suspension bridge several times...Chris won't like that one, either.
 
  • #12
The_Kitchen_Guy said:
Actually, it's Blue Bell, which is a northern 'burb of Philly. Intercourse is closer to Lancaster, and I've actually been there.


There is a Blue Ball, it's in Lancaster county, I've actually been there. At the intersection of 322 and 23. Tried to link the map from Mapquest but it doesn't seem to work....
 
  • #13
I am from Charleston WV and I have a cousins (if Chad is still alive) who jumped a few years ago on Bridge Day. He has pictures so I guess it is true!!
 
  • #14
The_Kitchen_Guy said:
Chris, I put it up just for you.

Becky, it was this bridge. It's the only way across the gorge except for a 45 minute drive on the old, winding highway.

Awww, thanks KG.....nice to know you still think about me even thought I've been gone for a while.....:love:

FYI - I think I would take the 45 minute drive to go around it...
 
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  • #15
You wouldn't even know you were on it. You're just driving along US 19 and maybe notice that there aren't so many trees next to the road, then all of a sudden, you see the sign for the national park.I crossed it twice, then asked someone where it was. I was very surprised to realize that I had been on the bridge - twice - when I found out where it was!
 
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  • #16
Misleading Headline - Gee, there's a shockThe headline makes you think someone was injured doing a BASE jump from the New River Gorge bridge but, in fact, it was some dope jumping from a bridge in nearby Beckley. To add to the insult, the article writer tries to link the incident to Bridge Day. (See how the MSM misleads us?)

Bridge Jump Injures W.Va. Parachutist

By Associated Press
10:28 PM EDT, October 20, 2007

BECKLEY, W.Va. - A man who apparently got a one-day jump on a festival celebrating a famous West Virginia bridge was injured after parachuting from a different span.

The man suffered a broken leg Friday after parachuting off a bridge linking Beckley to Interstate 64. The man, whose name was not released, was taken to a hospital.

He was with a group of people who had BASE jumping gear, authorities said. BASE stands for the places such jumpers usually leap from: buildings, antennae, spans and earth.

The accident occurred a day before Saturday's annual Bridge Day event, when hundreds of parachutists converged on West Virginia to jump 876 feet from the New River Gorge Bridge, one of the world's longest steel-arch spans.

A jumper was killed at last year's festival after his parachute apparently opened too late.

Link.
 
  • #17
Being a caver, I have several friends who visit Bridge Day not to jump off of it, but to rappel off of it.

I think that's scarier than jumping because the trip down lasts longer.

Needless to say, I will not be joining them anytime in the near future.
 
  • #18
Jean DeVries said:
Being a caver, I have several friends who visit Bridge Day not to jump off of it, but to rappel off of it.

I think that's scarier than jumping because the trip down lasts longer.

Needless to say, I will not be joining them anytime in the near future.

I don't blame you, Jean! I wouldn't do that either!!

Caving?? You are a spelunker?? I've always wanted to try that! I'd do that way before having to cross a bridge!

Bridges......((shudder))....blech!! :yuck:
 
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  • #19
I'd much rather cross a bridge than go crawling around underground.To each his own, I guess.
 
  • #20
ChefBeckyD said:
My Senior Trip was at the New River Gorge. 5 days of hiking, rappelling, whitewater rafting, and horseback riding through the mountains. It was a very fun, memories for a lifetime kind of trip. BUT I do remember getting sick having to cross the Gorge. I don't know if it was this bridge or not......but it was a very long way down!

DH and a buddy of his LOVE the New River Gorge. They try to go down to camp/hike/rappel/etc. for a long weekend every other year or so.
 
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  • #21
Katie, go look at my pictures on the last page of the I HATE Bridges thread. The color in West Virginia is stunning right now, and one view is better than the last one.
 
  • #22
I saw those already and they are really great! DH and I don't go camping together because our idea of camping is COMPLETELY different. While we both will go tent camping, I prefer to spend my day very leisurely, maybe taking a EASY hike or hanging out at the campsite with a really good book (and no kids!). Whereas DH and his camping buddy have topographical maps of the entire Gorge and study them before they go and then make a detailed itinerary of where they are going to hike each day. WAY too much work!!!
 
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  • #23
My idea of roughing it is staying at a hotel that only has an outdoor pool.
 
  • #24
The_Kitchen_Guy said:
I'd much rather cross a bridge than go crawling around underground.

To each his own, I guess.
The Detroit Marathon does both. The route traditionally crosses into Windsor and back, one way through the Detroit/Windsor tunnel and one way across the Ambassador Bridge. It's the only marathon in the world with an underwater international crossing.
 
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  • #25
Not to mention, it commemorates two of the ways that Canadian Whiskey found its way into the United States during prohibition.
 
  • #26
The marathon was this past Sunday. The last couple of years, they've ended the route at Ford Field, with the actual finish line at the 50-yard line. But this year, the Lie-downs, um... Lions.... had a home game, so they couldn't do that. But I saw footage of the finish line and it was right in front of work. :) There's a comic strip in the paper called Frazz, about an elementary school janitor who participates in triathlons and other races. The cartoonist is from Michigan, in fact, he lives near Lansing. This Sunday's strip showed Frazz and another character at the Detroit marathon, complete with accurate logo on the banner.
http://www.comics.com/comics/frazz/archive/frazz-20071021.htmlAnd, just to get back to bridges, according to the comics.com Frazz page, the author participated in a swim across the Straits of Mackinac Labor Day weekend to raise money for a mentoring organization. They swam in the shadow of the bridge.
 
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  • #27
Man, oh man! I don't even like taking the ferry to the island in the straits. Swimming in it?!? YEOW!
 
  • #28
Apparently, they lucked out and it was pretty calm that day. Mallet (the author of Frazz) said that the coolest part was looking straight up the bridge supports from the water.
 
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  • #29
Cool star.I'm jealous.Not really.
 
  • #30
chefann said:
Apparently, they lucked out and it was pretty calm that day. Mallet (the author of Frazz) said that the coolest part was looking straight up the bridge supports from the water.


Ick....no thank you! And one would think that the straits are deep...therefore, the water must be REALLY cold....brrr.....

I don't like bridges...even from underneath!! But to each their own.
 
  • #31
And Ann, that IS a pretty cool star. 10,000 to get them one, huh?

Maybe in my lifetime................hey, a girl can dream, can't she?? lol!!
 
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  • #32
Just join Post Sluts Anonymous and get going!
 
  • #33
The_Kitchen_Guy said:
Just join Post Sluts Anonymous
President: me
Vice-president in charge of silliness: KG
 
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  • #34
You're still 4 grand ahead of me. I am unworthy.
 
  • #35
That's just because you're busy being a contributing member of society, while I sit on here all day. :)
 
  • #36
Any consultants our there in Pensacola, Florida?
 
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  • #37
Are there any high level bridges there?
 

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