RIP Chuck Yeager

[kevinb1994]

https://www.actionnewsjax.com/news/trending/chuck-yeager-first-person-break-sound-barrier-dead-97/WKYI7PFDBRG7RJDM4PR7L6Q4II/

I guess it's appropriate to play a certain Coldplay song.

[Roadgeekteen]

RIP. Didn't they name the Charleston Airport after him?

[Buck87]

RIP. Didn't they name the Charleston Airport after him?

Yes, he was born and raised in West Virginia

[formulanone]

RIP. Didn't they name the Charleston Airport after him?

Yes, he was born and raised in West Virginia

There's also I-64/77 bridge over the Kanawha River named for him.



In 1948, Chuck Yeager flew under the South Side Bridge at approximately 500 miles an hour...

[Scott5114]

It would seem that it is not, in fact, a great day for flying.

[qguy]

Chew a stick of Beeman's in his honor.

[Dirt Roads]

Chew a stick of Beeman's in his honor.

Needed Beeman's on a few Piedmont flights in and out of Charleston, back before they extended the runway twice. 

[hbelkins]

Didn't realize until I read an obituary today that Yeager is from the same "holler" as my paternal grandfather. He was born in Myra, WV, which is on Upper Mud River Road between the Lincoln County seat of Hamlin and the community of Sias, where my grandfather was from. Who knows, I might even be related to him.

[SP Cook]

The bridge dates to the original Turnpike construction.  All of the larger bridges on the Turnpike were named for military figures.

After he became more famous due to the Right Stuff book and then movie, they renamed the airport.  Sad that such a terrible airport, probably WV's biggest hinderance, received the name of such a good guy. 

On a brighter side, Marshall University was pleased to receive a large amount of Gen. Yeager's collection and fund raising help.  The university's honors college is called the Society of Yeager Scholars. 

[Dirt Roads]

After he became more famous due to the Right Stuff book and then movie, they renamed the airport.  <snipped>

At least in West Virginia, he was certainly the most famous military hero after his historic flight was announced the year after.  (O.K., Stonewall Jackson was more famous but we didn't recognize Virginia back then).  Yeager was also the most famous "local" hero where I grew up, given that in the old days, Putnam County had more in common with Lincoln County to the south (where Yeager was from) and Mason County to the north.  My fifth grade teacher was a Yeager and closely related to him (but she never said how, because she knew the other kids were trying to get her distracted in class).  She got married that year and everyone was disappointed that she changed her last name.

And at some point in time, history records that the Mothman became the most famous aviator from West Virginia.

[hbelkins]

Which bridge in Charleston did he fly under?

[Dirt Roads]

Which bridge in Charleston did he fly under?

The Southside Bridge comes off of Dickenson Street in downtown Charleston.  Back in the 1960s and 1970s (before I-64 was completed), it was three lanes wide with a reversible lane down the middle and Dickenson Street was one-way reversible into downtown (mornings) and out of downtown (evenings).  The Southside Bridge carried US-119 and WV-14, with US-119 doing a complete 360-degree loop wrapping around the C&O train station down to MacCorkle Avenue (WV-61).  WV-14 was gone by the time I can remember, but I think it was routed straight up through the South Hills before Oakwood Road became the main route for its predecessor, WV-214.  I can't find the bridge height.  The mean level of the Kanawha River has been raised several times since Chuck flew under the bridge in 1948, so the height was perhaps 20 feet more then than it is today. But that's still mighty tight for a small jet.

[Dirt Roads]

Which bridge in Charleston did he fly under?

The Southside Bridge comes off of Dickenson Street in downtown Charleston.  Back in the 1960s and 1970s (before I-64 was completed), it was three lanes wide with a reversible lane down the middle and Dickenson Street was one-way reversible into downtown (mornings) and out of downtown (evenings).  The Southside Bridge carried US-119 and WV-14, with US-119 doing a complete 360-degree loop wrapping around the C&O train station down to MacCorkle Avenue (WV-61).  WV-14 was gone by the time I can remember, but I think it was routed straight up through the South Hills before Oakwood Road became the main route for its predecessor, WV-214.  I can't find the bridge height.  The mean level of the Kanawha River has been raised several times since Chuck flew under the bridge in 1948, so the height was perhaps 20 feet more then than it is today. But that's still mighty tight for a small jet.

Oops.  It looks like US-119 was originally routed across the 35th Street Bridge (now twin 35th and 36th Bridges) while WV-14 was routed across the Patrick Street Bridge (along with US-60).  Even back in those days, it looks like WV-14 was routed "up" Oakwood Road (southbound) to bypass The South Hills.  Sometime in the mid-1950s, WV-14 was rerouted over the 35th Street Bridge.  I recall something being signed over the bridge back when I was little, but it was probably "To WV-61".

Back when I was 16 and getting geared up as a young Roadgeek, I went up to the train station and drove into downtown in the mid-afternoon to try to understand the phasing for the reversible lane on the Southside Bridge.  I was expecting a short-term lane shutdown (similar to the HOV lanes on the Shirley Highway), but instead found the middle lane was closed shortly after the rush hour each weekday.  Not sure what I was thinkin' back then.