100 Fun Facts About New River Gorge National Park

With over 1,400 established routes, the gorge is one of the East Coast's top spots for which sport?

Almost every route is a single pitch of 30 to 120 feet on the hard rock band just below the rim.

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

The upper river is gentler, with class I to III water 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?

It is billed as the longest and deepest river gorge in that entire 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 change rode along inside a giant year-end spending bill rather than passing as a standalone park law.

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

The grassroots coalition behind it had first come together to stop a pumped-storage dam proposed for the river far upstream on the state line.

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

That split (7,021 acres of park against 65,165 of preserve) is why the official name carries both words.

Roughly how far along the gorge does the park stretch?

Two visitor centres stay open all year, while two more, including the old railroad depot, are seasonal.

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

Before the bridge, the only crossing of the gorge itself was the one-lane Fayette Station Bridge far below.

What type of bridge is the New River Gorge Bridge?

Its 1,700-foot arch was the longest single-span arch in the world for 26 years and is still the longest outside China.

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

When it opened in 1977 it was the world's highest bridge carrying a regular road, a title China's Liuguanghe Bridge took in 2001.

In what year was the New River Gorge Bridge completed?

It cut the drive from one rim of the gorge to the other from about 45 minutes to 45 seconds.

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

Corridor L was built to link the state turnpike with I-79 and to open the struggling coal country to tourists.

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

One headache was making sure the weld points weathered at the same rate as the rest of the steel.

Roughly how much did the bridge cost to build?

That was about $4 million over bid, with the federal government covering 70 percent of the funding.

Which engineering firm designed the New River Gorge Bridge?

U.S. Steel's American Bridge Division did the building, the same outfit behind the Golden Gate's steelwork.

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

The bridge also had a real-world starring turn on the 2005 state quarter and in the 2002 film Steal.

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

It is one of the very few sanctioned exceptions to the general ban on BASE jumping anywhere in the National Park System.

In what year was the first Bridge Day held?

It has been skipped only three times since: 2001 after the September 11 attacks, and 2020 and 2021 during the pandemic.

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?

He jumped at night with a conventional parachute and more than 200 people watching; a plaque at the bridge marks the spot.

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

Estimates put the whole event's crowd at around 100,000 people, in a county seat of a few thousand.

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

It was built for inspections, and tour guests clip into safety rigging for the quarter-mile walk.

Despite its name, the New River is notable for being what?

It may have held roughly its present course for at least 65 million years, though the popular 'second oldest in the world' claim is disputed by the state geological survey.

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?

Its North Fork and South Fork meet near Boone, and the whole river runs about 360 miles.

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?

When ice buried the old channel, its waters were diverted into rivers the glaciers created, including today's Ohio.

Which Virginia colonel behind the 1671 Batts and Fallam expedition gave the New River its old name?

The 1671 expedition he sent was the first recorded exploration of the river.

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

A crossing near the park's southern welcome centre still bears her name.

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

Depots, rail yards, trestles and whole company towns grew up along the line, which CSX still runs today.

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

More than 50 company-owned towns once lined the gorge to dig it, and their coke ovens still crumble beside the tracks.

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

At the 2005 town election, six of its seven residents ran for office.

The renovated 1888 C&O railway depot in the park's near-ghost town was reopened as what?

The town had no road until 1921; its shopfronts open straight onto the tracks with no street between.

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

It stood just outside town limits, beside a red-light district called Ballyhack, where the town founder's alcohol ban did not apply.

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 who did what there?

The very hard rock layer that climbers love at the rim shares 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?

The town had no church, saloon, bank or town hall, just segregated schools, company stores, a pool hall and a ball field.

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

Commercial trips run April through October, mostly from the Cunard put-in to the Fayette Station take-out.

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

Almost all are single-pitch routes of 30 to 120 feet, mostly in the 5.10-5.12 range for advanced climbers.

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

The rock is heavily featured with cracks, faces and the occasional big roof, split about evenly between traditional and sport routes.

Which endangered giant salamander, the largest aquatic one in the U.S., lives in the park?

The park counts 48 amphibian species in all, plus at least 63 mammals including endangered Virginia big-eared and Indiana bats.

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

The gorge is a key link on the north-south flyway, and thousands of hawks pass over during the fall migration.

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

Isolation by the gorge's rapids and rugged terrain let these fish evolve nowhere else.

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

Dry drilling through silica rock gave hundreds of workers silicosis; the tunnel still diverts much of the river's flow to a power plant.

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

Poet Muriel Rukeyser visited in 1936 and turned the story into her 1938 collection The Book of the Dead.

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?

Canyon Rim sits at the north end of the bridge, with overlooks and a staircase that drops partway into the gorge.

Along with the gorge, which two other national parks are noted for a man-made centerpiece?

The gorge was also settled by European Americans long before it was protected, unlike most western parks.

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

It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2013, before it was even 50 years old.

The park stretches from just below which town down to Hawks Nest State Park?

The 53-mile stretch ends near Ansted; the New River itself begins in North Carolina and flows north to the Kanawha.

Which president signed the 2020 law that made the gorge a national park and preserve?

The designation act was folded into the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, signed on December 27, 2020.

How many primitive camping areas are there within the park?

The park also has over 50 miles of hiking trails, several of which follow old railroad grades and are open to bikes.

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

Forty plant communities with at least 1,342 species and 54 rare plants make it the most diverse flora of any river gorge in central and southern Appalachia.

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

The portals also shelter bats such as the endangered Virginia big-eared and Indiana bats; the park has at least 63 mammal species.

How long is the New River Gorge Bridge?

Its 1,700-foot arch made it the world's longest single-span arch bridge for 26 years; it is now the longest outside China.

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

Before 1977 the only crossing was the one-lane Fayette Station Bridge reached by winding Route 60.

Which US state quarter, issued in 2005, depicts the New River Gorge Bridge?

The bridge was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2013, before it had even turned 50.

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

Just below the dam the Greenbrier River joins the New, which then continues north into the gorge.

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

That single span held the world record for 26 years; it is still the longest of its kind outside China.

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

The Huangpu River crossing beat the older span by 105 feet, and basketball star Yao Ming was among the runners who crossed it first.

Whose American Bridge Division built the gorge bridge?

Making the weld points weather at the same rate as the rest of the rust-skinned steel was one of the build's trickiest problems.

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

It was the biggest project in the history of the state highways department, and it ran about $4 million over bid.

Why was Bridge Day cancelled in 2001?

Before 2001 two lanes stayed open to cars during the festival; since then the whole span closes to traffic for the day.

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

Rappelling off the underside of the deck has been part of the festivities since 1981.

What was Burton Ervin's day job when he made the first parachute jump from the bridge?

Ervin, a Cowen native, used a conventional parachute and now has a plaque at the bridge commemorating the leap.

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, banned alcohol on his land, so the saloons and gambling set up just across the line.

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

The McKell family's hotel sat on land beyond the founder's dry zone, which is exactly why the cards never stopped.

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.

In the 2005 election in the park's railroad ghost town, how many of its 7 residents ran?

It is the least-populous municipality in West Virginia, and most of it is owned by the National Park Service.

Roughly how many passengers used the railroad ghost town's Amtrak stop in all of 2023?

It has ranked among Amtrak's least-used stations for years; there is no waiting room, ticket booth or staff.

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

Its Prince stop doubles as the closest rail station to Beckley.

In which architectural style was the 1946 Prince depot built?

Its terrazzo floor still carries the railroad's original 'Chessie' kitten logo, and the canopy was angled to warm waiting passengers in winter.

What happened to the Kaymoor Two mine while the gorge's big bridge was being built?

The old pick mine sat right where one of the bridge pylons needed solid footing.

Kaymoor was opened in 1899 to feed whose blast furnaces?

The property had been bought back in 1873 and held in reserve for 26 years before the first coal came out.

Which of these did the spartan company town of Kay Moor actually have?

It had no town hall either, just company stores, a ball field and pairs of segregated schools at top and bottom.

Which famous firm built Nuttallburg's 1899 pedestrian suspension bridge across the river?

The same family name is on the Brooklyn Bridge; here it linked the town to South Nuttall on the far bank.

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

Its name refers to the five mountains that surround the site.

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

The town was named for Jean McKell, wife of the landowner, and once boasted an opera house; the old bank now serves as a visitor contact station.

Whose Summit Bechtel Reserve borders the park and hosted a 2019 world jamboree?

More than 13 miles of the reserve's boundary touches the park, which was a deciding factor in picking the site.

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

Most of the New's flow is sent three miles through Gauley Mountain to a hydroelectric plant, leaving the riverbed below the dam mostly exposed.

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

She visited Gauley Bridge in 1936, the same year a congressional committee investigated the deaths.

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

On a clear day the overlook takes in seven miles of the river, including 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?

The state had bought the first 52 acres there in 1939 to develop a day-use park.

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

Construction of the Cliffside Amphitheater began in 1960, and shows run from June through August.

Which New Deal agency built Grandview's roads, shelters and picnic area, all still in use?

The playgrounds and extra walkways came later, between 1961 and 1964.

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

Several small islands split the largest waterfall on the New into separate cascades, and an accessible boardwalk crosses two of them.

The big falls formed as the river ate away which softer rock under its hard caprock?

The falls are still creeping upstream as the undercutting continues.

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

Brooks Overlook on Route 20 looks straight down on the island.

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

The cliffs run 30 to 120 feet high, and nearly every route is a single pitch.

Which trail is named with Canyon Rim Visitor Center as a classic spot to view the bridge?

The 3.2-mile out-and-back ends on a rock finger that points straight at the span.

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

From there the run ends at Fayette Station, just past the bridge.

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

Anglers need a West Virginia license; the river has produced multiple state-record fish.

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

The sedges, cedars and pines grow on flat sandstone 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?

Ten bat species have been documented in the park, so protecting the abandoned mines protects their hibernation sites too.

Which sky-blue songbird, declining elsewhere, breeds in the gorge's unbroken forest?

The gorge is a vital link in the north-south flyway, and thousands of hawks stream over it each fall.

Which 162-mile tributary joins the New at the park's upstream end with ~30% of its flow?

More than three-quarters of its watershed is karst, which is why it is prized for trout fishing and caving.

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

The same year-end spending package carried pandemic relief, which is how a national park got created with almost no fanfare.