New River Gorge Bridge

The New River Gorge Bridge carries U.S. Route 19 on a single soaring steel arch 876 feet (267 m) above the New River in southern West Virginia. When it opened in 1977 it was the longest single-span steel arch bridge in the world, and it cut a drive that once wound 40 minutes down and back up the gorge to less than a minute across the top. Its rust-brown arch against the forested canyon has become the emblem of the state, even appearing on the West Virginia quarter.

The bridge towers over the New River Gorge, a rugged whitewater canyon that in 2020 became the country's newest national park. One day each October, on "Bridge Day," authorities close the bridge to traffic and allow BASE jumpers to leap from the catwalk into the gorge while crowds watch - one of the largest extreme-sports gatherings in the United States.

• West Virginia
  The Mountain State, entirely within Appalachia related