Saturday, October 18, 2008

BRIDGE DAY 2008!

Bridge Day is a BIG event in West Virginia. In fact, it is West Virginia’s largest one day festival. People from 15 countries participated. They were expecting 200,000 people to watch, and I was one of them.


Here I am ........


Standing in the middle of this.


The New River Gorge Bridge officially opened October 22, 1977.


Picture of bridge under construction.


The first Bridge Day was celebrated in 1980 when only 5 BASE jumpers jumped off the bridge. Today they expected 450 jumpers.


Jumpers getting their parachutes ready.



Jumpers in line.


It is 876 feet high and 8 seconds from the bridge to the water below.


One taking off.....


Two taking off....



Our parents used to say to us as kids, "If so and so jumped off a bridge, would you do it too?" Well apparently for these jumpers, the answer was yes.

One by one........


they glided gracefully to the bottom of the gorge.


Two of my sons watching from above.



Others watched from the lookout on the side of the mountain.


The beautiful view we all saw from the middle of the bridge.


The small winding road below us...


and the long straight road ahead of us, on the long walk back to the car.


An annual, spectacular event held the 3rd Saturday of October for a majestic bridge.


Summer vacation picture taken from the lookout.

Were you at the bridge today walking across? If not, I hope my pictures helped transport you there.


7 comments:

  1. Janet;your observations and report of the Bridge Day events in Fayette County.W.Va.as well as the nice photos of the New River Gorge,the bridge and the "BASE JUMPERS" was exquisite,to say the least,and well done. Thanks from C.T.S.,Charleston,W.Va.

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  2. Nice, Janet. We attended once, but the 4-mile hike back to our car has not made me want to go back! It is an amazing event, though. And I have heard that in Fayetteville itself there are great crafts and other things. We never got to see that part.

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  3. Looks like you had a good time. It was a good day for it. You got some good pictures.

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  4. Janet, what a great post! Wow, that event is so fabulous! Not only do people get to see the parachutists, but the views looked spectacular from up there!

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  5. Wow what a bridge-never been there-but now want to go!

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  6. Janet, I had to add--I found out yesterday that my brother, sister and brother-in-law tried to stay in that town overnight on their trip here from Nebraska (it was quite a voyage! See my Mom's blog Life in Wakefield to read about it!) just when all the rooms were totally full of people there for bridge day! Interesting coincidence!

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  7. I am not showing my teenager this post- I suspect he would love to do something like this.... every year a bungee jump comes to the fair near where we live, and every time I ban him from it!! It costs £10 per person and you need two people and so far he hasnt had that type of cash...but time is against me I know!

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