BRIDGE DAY turns 30 on Oct. 17th, 2009
Travel route 19 into the heart of Fayetteville, West Virginia, and deep within the Appalachian mountains you will find the second largest arched bridge in the world. It’s the New River Gorge Bridge, and it is 3,030 ft (924 m) long, with a span of 1,700 ft (518.2 m) at a maximum height of 876 ft (267 m). This steel-arched monster was completed on October 22, 1977, and it only took two years for thrill seekers to decide it would be a great structure to jump from. Okay, I thought two years was a long time to make that decision too.
The Bridge Day event is sponsored by the 
Fayette County Chamber of Commerce, and it has made BASE jumping off of the New River Gorge Bridge legal for one day per year, since 1979. The annual event commemorates the completion of this amazing structure, and this year, on Saturday, October 17th, 2009, Bridge Day will be celebrating its 30th Anniversary. Fayetteville is expecting over 80,000 spectators and participants. The event includes BASE jumping between 9am and 3pm, rappelling from underneath the bridge, 700ft high line rides, and rows of food and festivities.
My good friend Dustin and I plan on arriving in Fayetteville this Friday in order to attend the media briefing event and get the lay of the land. This will be the inaugural Traventure Man episode and we are taking you with us. Let us know what you want us to ask these daring BASE jumpers. What are your favorite foods? Maybe we will try to find them at Bridge Day, or on our trek to West Virginia. We will be keeping in touch through Twitter at @TraventureMan. We will also be posting short behind the scenes updates on this blog through YouTube. AND if we can pull it off we are going to try to do a Live USTREAM video cast.
So come Traventure with us to Bridge Day ‘09 in West Virginia!
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