New River Gorge National Park and Preserve

Despite its name, the New River is among the oldest rivers on the continent, and it flows north, cutting across the grain of the Appalachian Mountains. Over millions of years it carved a sandstone gorge in southern West Virginia that the park protects for 53 miles (85 km), from near Hinton to Hawks Nest. The river's lower stretch is famed for big whitewater, and the gorge's sandstone cliffs hold hundreds of established rock climbing routes. The New River Gorge Bridge, 876 feet (267 m) above the water, spans its northern end.

Congress designated the area a national river in 1978 and redesignated it New River Gorge National Park and Preserve on December 27, 2020, making it the 63rd national park. Only about 7,000 acres became national park land, where hunting is barred, while the larger preserve keeps hunting open. Together they cover about 113 square miles (292 km²). Coal mining and the railroad once filled the gorge with towns, and ruins and restored depots such as Thurmond remain. Each October on Bridge Day, the bridge closes to traffic for rappellers and BASE jumpers.

• New River Gorge Bridge
  West Virginia's great steel arch over the New River contains
• Thurmond
  A near-empty railroad town in a river gorge contains
• The Appalachian Mountains
  The ancient, worn mountains of the eastern U.S. located in
• West Virginia
  The Mountain State, entirely within Appalachia located in
• The Ohio River
  The Mississippi's largest tributary by volume related