“If your friends all jumped off of a bridge, would you follow them?”
It’s a rhetorical question, of course, one that countless children have been asked by their mothers, desperate to show the foolishness of blindly following the lead of friends. So, it’s likely that those moms let loose a weary sigh about New River Gorge Bridge Day, an annual event in Fayetteville, West Virginia, that is the largest extreme sports event in the world.
Last year, 377 people from more than 10 countries took a record 876 legal BASE jumps off the New River Gorge Bridge, aided by a parachute and, occasionally, the addition of a wingsuit. (“BASE” stands for the four categories of objects from which someone can jump: bridge, antenna, span and earth.)
On October 18, adrenaline junkies will set out to break that record — and give even more mothers a reason to roll their eyes.
The first Bridge Day jumpers soared onto the scene in 1980, when two parachutists leapt from a plane to land on the bridge, and five parachutists jumped off of the bridge and into the gorge below. That inaugural year saw 5,500 other visitors get their kicks by merely walking across the New River Gorge Bridge; its 3,030-foot length makes it the world’s second-longest, single-arch bridge. Meanwhile, its height, 876 feet above the rushing water, makes it ideal for all types of aerial activities, including rappelling and highline.
The event also appeals to travelers who’d rather keep their feet on solid ground. The Taste of Bridge Day food festival is held on October 17, helping lure more than 150,000 visitors to the next day’s big leap.