New River Gorge: one of the oldest rivers in the world, beneath a dizzying bridge

In the Appalachians of West Virginia, the New River has cut a deep gorge, covered in forest. Despite its name, it’s one of the oldest rivers in the world. A steel bridge crosses it in a single leap, 267 metres above the water.

History and origins

The river was already flowing when the Appalachians rose. It sawed its way through them, and it flows north, the opposite way to almost all its neighbours.

From 1873, the railway opened up the gorge, and with it the coal mines. Some fifty mining towns clung to the slopes. Almost all have been abandoned since the 1950s, and the forest has covered them over. The river was protected in 1978. It became a national park at the end of 2020.

What to do there

• The bridge: completed in 1977, 924 metres long, with a single-span arch. It cut the crossing of the gorge from 40 minutes of hairpin bends to under a minute. From the visitor center, a boardwalk goes down to an overlook.
• The walk under the bridge: an outfitter takes people across the gorge on the maintenance catwalk, beneath the deck, clipped to a cable.
• Fayette Station Road: the old road, narrow and one-way, goes down to the bottom of the gorge and passes under the bridge.
• Long Point: an easy trail to a rocky spur, facing the bridge. It’s the finest view.
• Endless Wall: a trail along the edge of a sandstone cliff several kilometres long, with overlooks above the river.
• Rafting: the lower part of the gorge has a string of big rapids, to be run with a guide. The upper part is calmer, for families.
• Thurmond: a former coal town, almost deserted, with its station and its brick fronts along the tracks.
• Grandview and Sandstone Falls: to the south, an overlook above a great bend in the river, and a waterfall 450 metres wide.

Stories and good to know

• The bridge was for a long time the longest steel arch in the world. It appears on the state’s quarter.
• The cliffs of the gorge have more than 1,400 climbing routes.
• Freight trains and the Amtrak passenger train still run along the bottom of the gorge.

Practical information for your road trip

• Getting there: the bridge is an hour from Charleston, the state capital, and about 5 hrs from Washington.
• Rafting: the season runs from spring to autumn. The outfitters are in Fayetteville and supply all the equipment.
• Where to stay: in Fayetteville, a friendly little town of climbers and paddlers.
• Combine it with: Shenandoah and the Blue Ridge Parkway.