"Bridge Day" on the New River Gorge Bridge
By J.R. Manning
Saturday, October 16, 2010
October 16 was the 31st Annual Bridge Day event at the New River Gorge Bridge, near Fayetteville, West Virginia. The New River Gorge Bridge was the longest steel arch bridge in the world when it was built, and was long a target of BASE jumpers, Rappellers and bungee jumpers. Once a year, authorities close down US 19 to allow enthusiasts to jump off the bridge to the New River, 876 feet below the surface of the bridge.
(BASE is an acronym for the enthusiasts of the extreme sport, who jump from a building, antenna, span or earth.)
The first BASE jump from the NRGB was made (illegally) in 1979 by Burton Ervin. The attraction to use the bridge, illegally, for BASE and bungee jumping gave Glenn Lukacs of the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce the idea to create Bridge Day. On November 8, 1980, the first legal BASE jumps were made from the NRGB.
Bridge Day has been held every year since, with the exception of 2001. Due to severe injuries to a bungee jumper in 1993, that type of jump is no longer allowed.
Today was Bridge Day, with over 400 extreme athletes there to BASE jump along with 20 Rappellers. Thousands of spectators were there to watch and enjoy the festivities.
For more about this year's Bridge Day, see Gorgeous Day for a Free Fall on the website of the Beckley Register-Herald.
News said Brooklyn bridge was shutdown. I hope it's nothing like terrorist attack. I do hope the people will not be kept in the dark regarding this incident because I feel alarmed about this. Police shut down the Brooklyn Bridge Friday morning. This was for the safety of all involved. This shutdown was used to investigate reports of "suspicious packages." Copper wiring wrapped around a flashlight turned out to be the suspicious package. The bridge was opened up after about an hour. It was almost as fast as it would take to get
Anyway, this is a nice photo of the New River Gorge Bridge. Thank you very much for these post and photo.
Some day I hope to rappel that bad boy on Bridge Day.
