New River Gorge Bridge
38.068888888889 - 81.081944444444Koordinaten: 38 ° 4 ' 8 " N, 81 ° 4' 55 " W
F1
U.S. Highway 19 ( four lanes with median barrier ) ( " Mountaineer Expressway " )
New River, CSX railway line
The New River Gorge Bridge is a steel arch bridge over the New River near Fayetteville, West Virginia. With an arch span of 518 meters, it was from its completion in 1977 until the completion of the Lupu Bridge in 2000, the longest arch bridge in the world. With 267 meters above the ground is after the 2010 completed Mike O'Callaghan - Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge, the second highest arch bridge in the world.
Construction
The crossing of the gorge of the New River, a tributary of the Ohio River, was very expensive, on the bottom of the gorge led a simple steel truss bridge over the river, the descent was made into the valley via a winding mountain road and was very time consuming. As part of the expansion of U.S. Highway 19 was decided early seventies, to build a bridge across the entire width of the valley. In June 1974, the first simple building steps, by means of an extending above the gorge cable crane, the first steel parts of the arch were installed. On October 22, 1977, the bridge was completed and opened to traffic.
Construction
The New River Gorge Bridge is a steel arch bridge made of corrosion resistant Cor-Ten steel with lying under the street curve. The executed in half-timbered style sheet with a total weight of 9555.377 tonnes spanning 518 meters across the valley, the total length of the bridge is 924 meters. A total of 19,958 tons of steel and the same amount of concrete were used in the bridge. Roll over the 21 -meter wide road per day, about 17,000 vehicles. The construction cost of the bridge amounted to 37 million U.S. dollars.
Special
Because of their height, the bridge is very popular with base jumpers. On the third weekend in October, the so-called " Bridge Day" takes place, in which the bridge is closed to traffic. During the Bridge Days parachute jumps are allowed from the bridge, as well as find Abseilvorführungen instead. After an accident in 1993 bungee jumps were prohibited from the bridge.
So far, three Base jumper died while jumping from the bridge, last Brian Lee Schubert, when his parachute did not open on 21 October 2006.