New River Gorge, West Virginia

We visited the New River Gorge and bridge in West Virginia. It ended up being just a day trip because there was a winter storm coming that we didn't want to get stuck driving in. It was very cold and rainy, so being inside the car was much nicer than outside. We had a hotel room for the night that we stopped at for a couple hours to let the kids run around a bit before getting back in the car. The New River is considered among the oldest rivers on the continent. The name New River is a bit silly with it being so old! The river is in deep canyons and has a ton of whitewater rafting. It also has a lot of rock climbing areas that I knew of friends going back when I was working at Sportrock. Even though the government shut down all the visitor centers, we were still able to go out on the trail built to be able to see the bridge. I still counted those sights as visited on my NPS stamp checklist.

The New River Gorge Bridge is a steel arch bridge 3,030 feet long over the New River Gorge. With an arch 1,700 feet long, the bridge was the world's longest single-span arch bridge for many years. It is now the fourth longest. The roadway of the New River Gorge Bridge is 876 feet above the New River that is currently the third highest in the United States. Construction began on the bridge in June 1974, and was completed on October 22, 1977. The final cost of construction was $37 million that was approximately $4 million over bid. Part of U.S. Route 19, its construction marked the completion of Corridor L of the Appalachian Development Highway System. The bridge is crossed by an average of 16,200 motor vehicles per day. In 2005, the structure gained nationwide attention when the US Mint issued the West Virginia state quarter with the bridge depicted on one side. In 2013, the bridge was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.