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."
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."