TRAVEL & CULTURE
ÒW
ILD, WONDERFUL.”
That’s what you’ll see
on the West Virginia
license plates zooming
southeast down U.S.
60 from Charleston.
The farther you go, the
thicker the Appalachian forest grows.
Train cars filled with chunks of ebony
coal chug on weathered tracks that run
along the highway. Winding country
roads tightly hug steep canyon walls.
The landscape ahead begins to clear.
Turn right onto U.S. 19, and a green sign
introduces the “Western Hemisphere’s
Longest Arch Bridge.” The wooded
walls drop suddenly to reveal a deep,
wide canyon beneath, an ancient river
running down below. Grip the steering
wheel, with your head on a swivel,
and marvel at a landscape that was
is, as the lush forests and
rushing water stretch
endlessly to the horizon.
Extending 3,030 feet across
and elevated 876 feet over
the New River, the bridge
was completed in 1977,
turning a 40-minute
crisscross along mountain
roads into a one-minute
drive to the other side.
The imposing steel
structure beckons dare-
devils on the third Saturday
of October, when profes-
sional jumpers take the
nearly 900-foot leap and
millions of years in the making.
The New River is one of the oldest
on the continent. In the southwestern
corner of West Virginia, where mining
towns once flourished, this waterway
is now a prime destination for outdoor
adventurers. The New River Gorge
National River was named a national
park in 1978 and includes 53 miles
of the river and 70,000 acres of
surrounding wilderness. It sliced
through the Appalachian Mountains,
carving the range’s deepest and
longest gorge (which is even taller
than the Gateway Arch in St. Louis).
Scenic Paradise
As the river slithered through the
mountains, it exposed coal-bearing
rocks, leading to a mining boom in
the late 19th century. The completion
of the West Virginia section of the
Chesapeake & Ohio Railway in 1873
revealed this undisturbed pocket of
nature to the rest of the country, and it
didn’t take long for outsiders to realize
it offered more than just fossil fuels.
The same torrent that sculpted a trail
of coal mines also created a nature-
lover’s dream with some of the best
rock climbing and white-water rafting
in the entire country.
Driving across the New River
Gorge Bridge, the longest steel span
in the western hemisphere and third-
highest bridge in the U.S., you’ll begin
to understand how massive this “wild,
wonderful” West Virginia wilderness
Historic Downtown
Stroll or ride along
South Court Street
in Fayetteville.
Bird’s-Eye View Ta k e
a catwalk tour under the
New River Gorge Bridge.
JULY 2019 / SOUTHERNLIVING.COM
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