Qualla: Bridge Day https://qualla.com/bridge-day en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:06 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_res/siteimages/rsslogo.png Qualla: Bridge Day https://qualla.com/bridge-day Bridge Day: Introduction https://qualla.com/bridge-day/ On any other day of the year, jumping off the New River Gorge Bridge will get you killed - and, before that, arrested. The bridge spans the gorge at 876 feet, the kind of height that makes BASE jumping serious. The National Park Service bans the activity in almost all its units. But on the third Saturday of every October since 1980, an exception is carved out by official proclamation. The four lanes of US Route 19 are closed to cars and reopened to about a hundred thousand walkers. People in parachute rigs step out of helicopters and over guardrails. They count to three, fall a few seconds into open air, and trip a canopy somewhere above the New River. This is Bridge Day, West Virginia's strangest and most spectacular festival.

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]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/y/2/bridge-day-wp/dny2-bridge-day-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Bridge Day: Why It Started https://qualla.com/bridge-day/ The New River Gorge Bridge opened to traffic on October 22, 1977, and for a few years it was simply the longest single-arch steel-span bridge in the world - a striking, slightly disorienting structure that Appalachian drivers crossed without quite realizing what they were on. By ...

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]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/y/2/bridge-day-wp/dny2-bridge-day-why-it-started.mp3 0:06 2 full Bridge Day: The Jumpers https://qualla.com/bridge-day/ BASE jumping at Bridge Day is the headline. The acronym stands for Building, Antenna, Span, Earth - the four classes of fixed objects the discipline involves leaping from. Bridge Day is one of the few legal opportunities of its kind in the United States. Several hundred jumpers r...

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]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/y/2/bridge-day-wp/dny2-bridge-day-the-jumpers.mp3 0:06 3 full Bridge Day: Rappellers and the Bungee Years https://qualla.com/bridge-day/ Not everyone who comes to Bridge Day jumps. Since 1981, rappelling off the underside of the bridge has been part of the festival - participants rig in to the deck and lower themselves on rope down toward the catwalk and the gorge. Some companies offer guided tours under the span ...

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]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/y/2/bridge-day-wp/dny2-bridge-day-rappellers-and-the-bungee-years.mp3 0:06 4 full Bridge Day: Walking the Span https://qualla.com/bridge-day/ For everyone who is not jumping, Bridge Day is mostly about the walk. Cars are cleared by early morning. By mid-day a slow tide of pedestrians is moving in both directions across the four closed lanes, leaning over the rails to watch jumpers fall, browsing the vendor booths on ea...

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]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/y/2/bridge-day-wp/dny2-bridge-day-walking-the-span.mp3 0:06 5 full