Fayette County's Freefall Fest

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Hometown Spotlight , West Virginia , Online Extras

John McDonald, 39, stands nervously atop the New River Gorge Bridge in Fayette County, W.Va. (pop. 47,579). Pausing to enjoy one of the state’s most spectacular views, the Orlando, Fla., parachutist looks down at the river 876 feet below and leaps off the bridge as thousands of onlookers cheer.

“When you first jump it’s totally quiet,” says McDonald, whose sport is called BASE jump-
ing because participants jump off “buildings, antennas, spans and earth.” “Then the wind starts picking up and it turns into a roar.” Four seconds into his freefall off the nation’s second highest bridge, McDonald opens his parachute and guides himself to a landing spot along the New River’s edge.

McDonald is among 384 BASE jumpers from around the world who participated in last year’s Bridge Day, a celebration of the world’s second longest single-arch bridge—measuring 3,030 feet long with a 1,700-foot arch span. The annual October event features food, arts & craft booths, and strolls along the one-half mile bridge. Some 100,000 people come each year to watch BASE jumpers plunge off the bridge and rappellers using harnesses and ropes to descend from the magnificent steel span.

“It’s an exciting thing to watch,” says Jeffrey Dorsey of the BASE jumpers. “It seems like Bridge Day just gets bigger and better every year.” Dorsey, 41, traveled from Huntington, W.Va. (pop. 51,475), with his wife Stephanie, 39, and their 18-month-old daughter, Jenna. “It’s a big family outing for us,” Stephanie adds. “And it’s an all-around good event.”

Lisa Pilom, a 34-year-old rappeller from Windsor, Ontario, agrees. “It’s such a good time,” she says. “You’ve got the festival for the people who want to visit the booths, you’ve got the jumpers, the rappellers, rafting on the river below; you can’t go wrong. Plus, the area is beautiful.”

Located north of Fayetteville (pop. 2,754), along Highway 19, the bridge is the property of the West Virginia Department of Highways. The area below is part of the New River Gorge National River, run by the National Park Service.

Park Ranger Leah Perkowski has worked each Bridge Day since joining the park service 13 years ago. “If you find me flying off the bridge, there’s probably been a crime involved,” Perkowski jokes. Last year, she helped ensure the safety of spectators who stood along the river’s edge watching BASE jumpers land. “The jumpers try to land in the drop zone, but some will tell you they want to end up in the river because it’s a softer landing.”

The origins of Bridge Day date back to the bridge’s completion on Oct. 22, 1977. “We had a ceremony to dedicate the bridge on the third Saturday of October back in 1977,” says Doug Maddy, who at the time was executive director of the Fayette County Chamber of Commerce, which still hosts the free event. “I think collectively when everybody looked out over the bridge and saw the view—it was the peak of our fall foliage and the bridge was magnificent—everybody there said, ‘We need to do this again.’”

In 1980, with the support of then-West Virginia Gov. Jay Rockefeller, Bridge Day became a reality, and 150,000 wide-eyed people came to walk along the new landmark, built between 1973 and 1977 at a cost of $37 million. “It’s an engineering marvel,” Maddy says. “People watched the building of the bridge for years.”

Prior to its completion, local motorists had to travel 40 minutes along winding mountain roads to cross a small bridge over the New River. “This area was fairly remote,” Perkowski says. “So when they built the bridge, it opened up the state in general. We started to have more recreation-based industry . . . because there was access.”

Maddy believes there’s a real sense of local pride when it comes to the bridge. That’s part of the reason, he says, that 40 to 50 Fayette County residents volunteer to make Bridge Day a reality.

“The epitome of this event is that this is a community collaborative,” he says. “Everybody in the community comes together. It’s all done with volunteers. We’re very proud of where we are. It’s a magnificent river, a spectacular bridge, and Bridge Day itself is the largest single-day event in the state. There’s a lot here to be proud of.” 

Bridge Day is scheduled Oct. 21. Visit www.officialbridgeday.com for more information.

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