New River Gorge Bridge Walk

[hbelkins]

Last week, I attended the AASHTO Subcommittee on Transportation Communications (TransComm) conference in Charleston, WV. One of our activities was a "field trip" to the New River Gorge Bridge. We got to do the Bridge Walk, which is an escorted tour along the catwalk beneath the bridge. The general public can do this for $70, but since we were attending an event affiliated with WVDOH, we got to do it for free.

This is some sort of public-private partnership involving WVDOT, the National Park Service and the private vendor, but I was unable to get any background information on who came up with the idea or how long this has been going on.

The photos I took are at https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10154376714625280.1073741836.720295279&type=1&l=a877b90bf9. I've made the album available for public viewing so anyone can see, whether they're on Facebook or not.

Several photos are also on the TransComm 2016 Flickr page at https://www.flickr.com/photos/transcomm2016/.

[jbnati27]

What an awesome opportunity - very cool! Thanks for sharing.

[wphiii]

Awesome! One of my favorite places in the world, the rare spot where natural spectacular meets man-made spectacular so perfectly. Glad you got the opportunity to see it from that perspective.

[VTGoose]

Last week, I attended the AASHTO Subcommittee on Transportation Communications (TransComm) conference in Charleston, WV. One of our activities was a "field trip" to the New River Gorge Bridge. We got to do the Bridge Walk, which is an escorted tour along the catwalk beneath the bridge. The general public can do this for $70, but since we were attending an event affiliated with WVDOH, we got to do it for free.

This is some sort of public-private partnership involving WVDOT, the National Park Service and the private vendor, but I was unable to get any background information on who came up with the idea or how long this has been going on.

Cool. I don't have an exact date, but in terms of the age of the bridge, the walk is relatively new -- like within the past 5-10 years (if that old). Is it an out-and-back walk or do you go one way and shuttle back to the start?

I have stuck away somewhere slides I took from the visitor center side when the construction was going on. At that time, the "new" U.S. 19 (mostly two lanes) "ended" at U.S. 60 at Hico and followed the old route on to Beckley (in multiple trips between Blacksburg and Pittsburgh, we took the cross-country route via Hinton and Rainelle, eventually finding the shortcut through Danese to Sandstone). But the four-lane section from U.S. 60 to the bridge was complete and open for local traffic and sightseers who wanted to see the bridge construction. The road down to Fayette and the river crossing, then back up the other side, was open to two-way traffic (on a narrow single-lane road with wide shoulders). It wasn't a trip for the faint of heart, but there wasn't the rafting traffic there is today. It was interesting to watch the progress of the construction, then finally to be able to zip across the bridge to make for a shorter trip (although it was a while before the connection was made directly to the Turnpike, which still required getting around/through Beckley).

Bruce in Blacksburg

[hbelkins]

Cool. I don't have an exact date, but in terms of the age of the bridge, the walk is relatively new -- like within the past 5-10 years (if that old). Is it an out-and-back walk or do you go one way and shuttle back to the start?

One-way. There's a little trail just off of path to the overlook at the visitors center, which you descend down to the gate at the catwalk to the underside of the bridge. You walk south, then there's a small path over to a spot on the Fayetteville side where you're picked up by a shuttle and taken back to the BridgeWalk store.

[rte66man]

Last week, I attended the AASHTO Subcommittee on Transportation Communications (TransComm) conference in Charleston, WV. One of our activities was a "field trip" to the New River Gorge Bridge. We got to do the Bridge Walk, which is an escorted tour along the catwalk beneath the bridge. The general public can do this for $70, but since we were attending an event affiliated with WVDOH, we got to do it for free.

$70???  Why so high?