94 Fun Facts About New River Gorge National Park

The gorge's rim cliffs make it one of the East Coast's top spots for which sport?

Rock climbing: nearly every route is a single pitch of 30 to 120 feet on the hard cliff band just below the rim, with bolted sport lines and traditional cracks.

Commercial outfitters run trips down the Lower Gorge from April through October doing what?

Whitewater rafting: outfitters have run the Lower Gorge's big rapids commercially since 1968, while the gentler upper river is better suited to canoeing.

New River Gorge National Park and Preserve is in which U.S. state?

It runs 53 miles down the gorge from just below Hinton to a state park near Ansted.

Which mountain system does the gorge cut through?

The gorge cuts through the Appalachians and is billed as the longest and deepest river gorge in that range, with more than 1,000 feet of rock exposed from rim to river.

In what year was the area redesignated from a national river to a national park and preserve?

The redesignation came on December 27, 2020, making the gorge the state's first national park after 42 years as a national river.

Which president signed the 1978 law that first protected the gorge as a national river?

Jimmy Carter signed the National Parks and Recreation Act on November 10, 1978, creating New River Gorge National River after years of local campaigning.

Roughly how much of the old national river became a hunting-free national park in 2020, the rest becoming preserve?

Less than 10%: only 7,021 acres became national park while 65,165 acres became preserve, which is why the official name carries both words.

Roughly how far along the gorge does the park stretch?

The park and preserve protect 53 miles of the New River, a corridor of roughly 72,000 acres running the length of the gorge.

Which town sits closest to the famous bridge over the gorge?

Fayetteville, the Fayette County seat, lies about two miles south of the bridge and is the base for most of the gorge's outfitters and guide services.

What type of bridge is the New River Gorge Bridge?

The New River Gorge Bridge is a steel arch bridge: a single steel arch springs from the gorge walls and carries the deck on slender columns, with no piers in the river.

How far above the river is the bridge's roadway?

The roadway sits 876 feet above the New River, high enough that the Washington Monument would fit beneath it with more than 300 feet to spare.

In what year was the New River Gorge Bridge completed?

The bridge was completed in 1977 and dedicated that October 22, after just over three years of construction that began in June 1974.

Which U.S. highway crosses the New River Gorge Bridge?

U.S. Route 19 crosses the bridge as part of Corridor L, a divided highway linking the state turnpike with I-79 that opened the coal country to tourists.

The bridge is built from which weathering steel that forms its own rust-coloured protective skin?

COR-TEN weathering steel needs no paint: it rusts to a stable brown skin, though engineers had to make sure the welds weathered at the same rate as the plates.

Roughly how much did the bridge cost to build?

The bridge cost about $37 million, with its steel fabricated off-site and hoisted into place by cableways strung across the gorge during construction.

Which engineering firm designed the New River Gorge Bridge?

Michael Baker Company, an engineering firm based near Pittsburgh, designed the bridge, choosing a single span so that no piers had to stand in the gorge.

The bridge appears as a location in which post-apocalyptic video game?

Fallout 76, set in a post-nuclear version of the state, recreates the New River Gorge Bridge as a landmark that players can cross in its open world.

Bridge Day, when the bridge closes to traffic and opens to BASE jumpers, falls on which day each year?

Bridge Day falls on the third Saturday in October, when the bridge closes to traffic from morning to mid-afternoon and jumpers launch from a platform on the deck.

In what year was the first Bridge Day held?

The first Bridge Day was held in 1980, when a handful of parachutists jumped from the new span and turned a local celebration into an annual event.

Which activity was banned at Bridge Day from 1994 because it took too long to reel people back up?

In 1992 New Zealander Chris Allum had bungeed 823 feet from the span, a record for a jump from a fixed structure, stopping about 40 feet above the water.

In what year did Burton Ervin, 'father of Bridge Day', make the first parachute jump from the bridge?

Burton Ervin made the first parachute jump from the bridge in the summer of 1979, landing on the riverbank below and inspiring the annual Bridge Day jumps that followed.

Roughly how many BASE jumpers take part in a typical Bridge Day?

About 400 BASE jumpers take part in a typical Bridge Day, many jumping more than once, before a crowd of tens of thousands along the roadway.

Guided 'Bridge Walk' tours use what feature running the length of the bridge under the roadway?

The Bridge Walk follows a two-foot-wide catwalk built for inspections, 25 feet below the deck, with guests clipped to a safety cable for the crossing.

What distinction is the New River often credited with?

The New is often called one of the oldest rivers on Earth, perhaps holding its course for 65 million years or more, though the 'second oldest in the world' claim is disputed by state geologists.

Unusually for an eastern U.S. river, in which general direction does the New River flow?

It rises in the Blue Ridge and crosses Virginia before carving its gorge through the Appalachian Plateau.

In which state does the New River begin?

The New begins in North Carolina, where two forks join in Ashe County near the Virginia line, with the South Fork rising near Boone.

The New River joins the Gauley River to form which river?

The Kanawha then reaches the Ohio at Point Pleasant, so New River water eventually flows down the Mississippi.

What do geologists call the far longer ancestral river the New River once belonged to, before glaciers buried it?

The Teays River once ran from the Blue Ridge across Ohio and Indiana toward the Mississippi; Pleistocene ice buried its channel and diverted its water into today's Ohio.

Which Virginia trader behind the 1671 Batts and Fallam expedition gave the river its old name?

Abraham Wood, the Fort Henry trader who sent Batts and Fallam west in 1671, is remembered in the river's early name, Wood's River.

Which frontier woman famously traversed the gorge in 1755 while escaping Shawnee captivity?

Mary Draper Ingles, taken from Draper's Meadow in 1755, escaped from the Shawnee and walked hundreds of miles home along the Ohio and New rivers, through the gorge.

Which railway's arrival in 1873 opened the gorge to the outside world?

The Chesapeake and Ohio finished its main line through the gorge in January 1873, and depots, trestles and company towns soon grew up along the tracks.

The gorge exposed seams of what famously 'smokeless' fuel that powered trains, fleets and iron furnaces?

New River bituminous coal was low in volatile matter, so it burned with little smoke; the 'smokeless' label sold it to railroads and the Navy's steam fleets.

Which near-ghost town on the river, largely owned by the Park Service, had a population of 5 in the 2020 census?

Thurmond, once a booming railroad town with banks and hotels, has dwindled to a handful of residents, and the Park Service owns most of its surviving buildings.

The renovated railway depot in the park's near-ghost town was reopened as what?

The restored depot reopened as a visitor center in 1995, staffed seasonally by the Park Service; the town had no road access until 1921.

Which 100-room hotel in the same railroad town, a famous coal-boom resort, burned down in 1930?

The Dun Glen, opened in 1901 across the river from the dry town, hosted the legendary poker game and burned in 1930 beside the Ballyhack red-light district.

Which industrialist built a huge conveyor at the Nuttallburg mine, selling his interest in 1928?

Ford wanted his own coal for the River Rouge plant; the mine kept producing until 1958.

Nuttallburg was named after John Nuttall, an English pioneer credited with doing what there?

Nuttall is credited with having discovered coal on land he bought above the river, opening one of the gorge's first mines in 1873; the hard cliff layer also bears his name.

At the Kay Moor mine, coal and workers travelled between the gorge rim and the river on what?

Both inclines ran until 1962; the coal one used counterbalanced cars, one going down as the other came up.

Kay Moor's coke ovens, which grew from 120 to 202 during World War I, were of which type?

Kay Moor's beehive ovens, domed brick kilns that baked coal into coke for blast furnaces, lined the riverbank below the mine.

What grade of rapids does the Lower Gorge reach, making it a premier rafting run?

The Lower Gorge reaches Class III to V, with big-volume rapids such as the Keeneys and Double Z that make it one of the East's premier runs.

Roughly how many established rock climbs are there in the park?

The park holds over 1,400 established routes, nearly all single-pitch climbs on the cliff band below the rim, making it one of the East's largest climbing areas.

The cliffs just below the rim of the gorge are made of what very hard rock beloved by climbers?

The cliffs are Nuttall Sandstone, a hard, quartz-rich layer heavily featured with cracks, faces and the occasional big roof, split about evenly between traditional and sport routes.

Which giant salamander, the continent's largest, lives in the park's rivers?

The hellbender, a flat-bodied salamander that can top two feet in length, hunts crayfish under big river rocks and needs clean, well-oxygenated water.

Which raptor have the Park Service and the state wildlife agency worked to restore to the gorge's cliffs?

Peregrine falcons were returned to the gorge's cliffs through hack-box releases of captive-bred young birds, after DDT had wiped out the region's nesting pairs.

Which brightly banded fish is among the eight species found only in the New River basin?

The candy darter, striped in teal, red and orange, lives only in the New River basin, where a downstream waterfall has long walled the river off from Ohio River fishes.

Which 1930s industrial disaster, among the worst in US history, struck tunnel workers just downstream of the gorge?

The Hawks Nest Tunnel disaster killed at least 476 workers of silicosis, by a 1936 congressional estimate, after they drilled for miles through silica rock without wetting the dust.

Which corporation's dry tunnel drilling caused the 1930s silicosis disaster near Gauley Bridge?

Union Carbide's power subsidiary built the tunnel to feed a hydroelectric plant for its metals works at Alloy, and its contractor drilled dry to save time.

Which grassroots fight first united the coalition that later won protection for the gorge?

Proponents called it the Blue Ridge Pumped Storage Project; opponents in three states beat it and then turned to protecting the gorge.

Which two visitor centers in the park are open year-round?

Sandstone and Canyon Rim stay open all year; Canyon Rim sits on the Lansing side of the bridge, with overlooks and a staircase that drops partway into the gorge.

Which interstate crosses the New River at the park's upstream end?

Interstate 64 crosses the New River on a high bridge near the park's upstream end, giving the quickest access to the park's southern reaches.

About how many vehicles cross the New River Gorge Bridge on an average day?

About 16,200 vehicles cross the bridge on an average day; the structure was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2013, before it turned 50.

The park's upstream end lies just below which town?

Hinton, the Summers County seat, sits just above the park's upstream boundary and grew up in the 1870s as a railroad division town.

Which president signed the law that made the gorge a national park and preserve?

Donald Trump signed the designation into law at the end of December, after it cleared Congress with a push from the state's senators, Joe Manchin and Shelley Moore Capito.

How many primitive camping areas are there within the park?

Eight primitive camping areas, such as Army Camp, Glade Creek, Stone Cliff and Grandview Sandbar, sit along the river, all first-come, first-served with no drinking water.

Roughly how many plant species have been identified in the gorge?

About 1,340 plant species, in some forty plant communities with 54 rare plants, make the gorge's flora the richest of any river gorge in the central and southern mountains.

Which rodent, a species of special concern in the state, finds refuge in the park's abandoned mine portals?

The Allegheny woodrat, a cliff-dwelling packrat that caches leaves and nuts, has declined across its range and uses the gorge's old mine portals as den sites.

How long is the New River Gorge Bridge?

The bridge is 3,030 feet long, more than half a mile from abutment to abutment, with its deck carried on steel columns rising from the arch and the gorge slopes.

By how much did the bridge cut the drive from one side of the gorge to the other?

The bridge cut the crossing from 45 minutes to 45 seconds, replacing the switchback descent to a one-lane bridge at the bottom of the gorge.

How many traffic lanes does the New River Gorge Bridge carry?

The New River Gorge Bridge carries four lanes of traffic, two in each direction, on the divided highway known as Corridor L that links the state turnpike with I-79.

Which dam on the New River, upstream of the gorge, creates a lake in Summers County?

Bluestone Dam, a concrete gravity dam finished by the Army Corps of Engineers in 1949, backs up Bluestone Lake at the park's upstream end.

How long is the New River Gorge Bridge's main span?

The main arch spans 1,700 feet, a world record for a single-span arch bridge when it opened, a title it held for 26 years.

Which city's Lupu Bridge took the span's world-record title away in 2003?

Shanghai's Lupu Bridge, opened in 2003 over the Huangpu River, carries a 550-metre arch that beat the gorge span by about 105 feet.

Whose American Bridge Division built the gorge bridge?

U.S. Steel's American Bridge Division erected the bridge, using a trolley strung on cables between two towers to swing the arch segments into place.

Who paid 70 percent of the bill for building the bridge?

The federal government paid 70 percent through the regional development highway program that funded Corridor L, the largest project the state highways department had ever undertaken.

Why was Bridge Day cancelled in 2001?

Bridge Day 2001 was called off over security fears after 9/11, with the attacks only weeks earlier, the first cancellation in the event's history.

Bridge Day's BASE jumps are a rare exception to a general ban on the sport where?

BASE jumping is banned across the National Park System, and the Bridge Day permit is a rare sanctioned exception, limited to a single day each year.

The gorge's old low bridge honors a police chief who was which boxer's first pro opponent?

Tunney Hunsaker lost that 1960 bout to the young Cassius Clay but the two stayed friends for life; Ali said he landed one of the hardest body blows of his career.

The captain who founded the gorge's railroad town got its 73 acres as payment for what?

The captain, a Confederate veteran, took the 73 acres in 1873 as payment for a surveying job and banned alcohol on his land, pushing the saloons across the river.

A hotel poker game by the gorge's railroad town, called the world's longest, ran how long?

The McKell family's hotel poker game supposedly ran 14 years without a break, helped by a site beyond the founder's dry zone across the river.

Which 1987 John Sayles film used the gorge's railroad ghost town as a 1920s stand-in?

The real Matewan sits about 100 miles away on the Kentucky line; the film earned an Oscar nomination for its cinematography.

Which Amtrak train, Chicago to New York three days a week, rolls through the gorge?

The Cardinal, Amtrak's Chicago to New York train, follows the river through the gorge, stopping at Prince and, on request, at the ghost town's old depot.

In which architectural style was the 1946 Prince depot built?

The Prince depot, finished in 1946, is Art Moderne: low, streamlined and curved, a late example of the style the railroads favored for their 1930s and 1940s stations.

Which coal seam, outcropping high on the gorge walls, fed most of its big mines?

The Sewell seam, a low-volatile bed several feet thick, outcropped high on the gorge walls, so the mines needed long haulage systems to carry coal down to the tracks.

First coal left the gorge in 1873 from which town, visible from Grandview's overlook?

Quinnimont, whose name means 'five mountains', shipped the gorge's first coal in 1873 under operator Joseph Beury, in the horseshoe bend seen from Grandview's overlook.

The park's headquarters is in which former coal town, opposite a 1909 bank?

Glen Jean, named for Jean McKell, wife of the coal landowner Thomas McKell, holds the park headquarters across from the 1909 Bank of Glen Jean building.

Which youth group built the Summit Bechtel Reserve beside the park and hosted a 2019 jamboree?

The Boy Scouts of America, renamed Scouting America in 2025, opened the Summit in 2013 on land that shares more than 13 miles of boundary with the park.

What nickname marks the river stretch below Ansted that a power tunnel leaves near-empty?

The Dries is the stretch below the tunnel's diversion dam, where most of the New's flow is sent three miles through Gauley Mountain to a hydroelectric plant.

Which poet's 1938 sequence The Book of the Dead grew out of the nearby tunnel disaster?

Muriel Rukeyser visited Gauley Bridge in 1936, the year a congressional committee investigated the deaths, and published The Book of the Dead in her collection U.S. 1.

How far above the river is Grandview's Main Overlook?

The Main Overlook stands 1,400 feet above the river, taking in the horseshoe bend and several miles of the gorge, with an active rail line on the far bank.

After 50 years as a state park, Grandview was handed to the Park Service in what year?

Grandview State Park passed to the National Park Service in 1990, joining the national river after the state had run it since buying 52 acres in 1939.

Which company stages outdoor dramas at Grandview's 1,200-seat amphitheater each summer?

Theatre West Virginia has staged Honey in the Rock and Hatfields & McCoys at the Cliffside Amphitheater since the early 1960s, with shows from June through August.

Which New Deal agency built Grandview's roads, shelters and picnic area?

The Civilian Conservation Corps built Grandview's first roads, stone shelters and picnic area in the late 1930s and early 1940s; playgrounds and extra walkways came in the 1960s.

The 1,500-foot-wide falls near the park's upstream end drop how far?

The falls drop just 10 to 25 feet, but several islands split the New's largest waterfall into separate cascades, and an accessible boardwalk crosses two of them.

The coal-bearing rock layers exposed in the gorge date from which geologic period?

The gorge's rock layers and coal seams are Pennsylvanian in age, laid down roughly 300 million years ago in coastal swamps and river deltas.

Brooks Island, at the park's upstream end, is a perennial nesting site for which bird?

A pair of bald eagles has nested on Brooks Island most years since about 2010, and Brooks Overlook on Route 20 looks straight down on the island.

Most sport routes at 'The New' fall in which climbing grade range?

Most sport routes at 'The New' fall in the 5.10 to 5.12 range, hard enough that the area is known for steep, technical climbing rather than beginner terrain.

Which 3.2-mile out-and-back trail is the classic hike to view the bridge?

Long Point Trail is a 3.2-mile out-and-back that ends on a rock finger pointing straight at the bridge, the classic photo spot for the span.

The premier Lower Gorge rafting run puts in at which access point?

Cunard, reached by a steep road down into the gorge, is the standard put-in for the Lower Gorge, and the run ends just below the bridge.

Which game fish headlines the New River's reputation as a warm-water fishery?

Smallmouth bass headline the New River's warm-water fishery, thriving in its rocky, fast water alongside walleye, muskellunge and catfish.

The gorge's rare Appalachian flatrock plant community needs what to survive long-term?

Periodic flood scouring keeps the flatrock community alive: its sedges, cedars and pines grow on flat rock ledges and would be crowded out if floods stopped sweeping them clean.

Along with the Indiana bat, which endangered bat roosts in the park's old mine portals?

The Virginia big-eared bat, a federally endangered species, hibernates in the gorge's abandoned mine portals, which the park gates to keep people out while letting bats pass.

Which declining songbird, a canopy nester, breeds in the gorge's unbroken forest?

The cerulean warbler, a canopy nester that has lost much of its range, finds one of its strongholds in the gorge's large unbroken forest.

Which 162-mile tributary joins the New just above the park's upstream end?

The Greenbrier runs 162 miles through limestone karst country famous for its caves before meeting the New just above the park's upstream boundary.

The act making the gorge a national park and preserve was folded into which larger bill?

The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, a year-end package that also carried pandemic relief, included the New River Gorge designation, so the park was created with little fanfare.