The town that became Fayetteville was first called Vandalia, an old American settlement-era name borrowed from a never-realized colonial colony. The community sat on the plateau where the New River carved its deepest canyon, but for years it was just a few homes among the trees. In 1837 the county legislature voted Vandalia in as the seat of Fayette County, replacing an earlier site that had been judged inconvenient, and renamed the town to match. Incorporation followed in 1883. By then the coal industry was beginning to remake the entire region. The McClung House, the courthouse, the early storefronts on Court Street - the architectural bones of historic Fayetteville - all date to the decades when the town was finding its shape as the administrative center of a booming coal county.

The New River Gorge Bridge opened on October 22, 1977, and instantly became one of the great engineering landmarks of the Appalachians. At 3,030 feet long with an arch span of 1,700 feet, it was the longest single-arch steel-span bridge in the world until the Lupu Bridge opened in Shanghai in 2003. It carries US Route 19 across the gorge at a height of 876 feet, cutting hours off the old US 60 route through the canyon. The Canyon Rim Visitors' Center on the north side of the bridge offers wooden boardwalks, observation decks, and an exhibit hall. Every third Saturday in October the bridge becomes the centerpiece of Bridge Day, when 100,000 visitors crowd the closed lanes to watch BASE jumpers leap 876 feet into the gorge below.

The New River, despite its name, is geologically among the oldest rivers on Earth, predating the Appalachians it now cuts through. Its rapids - and those of the wilder Gauley River nearby - have made Fayetteville one of the most important whitewater rafting hubs in the eastern United States. Outfitters along US 19 and in town can put you on the river for half-day floats or multi-day expedition trips. The rock climbing community has been working the gorge cliffs since the 1980s, and the area now offers some of the best sport climbing in the East. There is also mountain biking, hiking, fishing, horseback riding, and llama treks. Downtown Fayetteville played itself in the 2004 movie Win a Date with Tad Hamilton, standing in for the fictional town of Frazier's Bottom.

Most of what visitors to Fayetteville do happens within a five-mile radius of the courthouse. The historic downtown - listed on the National Register since 1990 - holds the visitors' bureau, in the old Fayette Jail building at 306 North Court Street. Guided walking tours through the district run at scheduled times. Outfitters and brewpubs occupy the brick storefronts. Lodging options range from cabins on the rim of the gorge - Adventures on the Gorge offers some of the best - to the Quality Inn on US 19 with its Whitewater Bar and Grill. Other accommodations include Opossum Creek Retreat with cabins in the woods. From Fayetteville, day trips run easily to Summersville, Beckley, Lewisburg, Charleston, and the small town of Hinton at the southern end of the national park. Whatever you came for, you are likely to find it within a short drive of downtown.