New River Gorge Bridge
Monday, 12th January 2009 by Alex Turnbull
The New River Gorge Bridge in West Virginia is the highest road bridge in the Americas and (until Google updates their French imagery), is the tallest road bridge visible on Google Earth.
The bridge is a spectacular steel-arch construction which carries Highway 19 at a height of 267 metres over the New River. Completed in 1977, the New River Gorge Bridge was the highest road bridge in the world for the next 27 years, until it was finally surpassed in height by the Millau Viaduct in 2004.
The old bridge that it replaced is still visible way down at the bottom of the gorge. Locals apparently say that the new bridge cut the travel time from one side of the gorge to the other from 45 minutes, right down to 45 seconds.
The Street View car has paid the bridge a visit too, and the view on approach gives you an idea of just how massive a structure it is, spanning some 924 metres.
Halfway across there's a rather nice view, but only from one side unfortunately. Although Wikipedia reckons an average of more than 16,000 cars cross the bridge each day, these images were obviously taken in the very early morning, as there's hardly a soul to be seen.
What neither the satellite shots or the street view images show is how incredibly impressive this bridge looks from either side - so for that, we'll have to refer you to Flickr instead.
There's more on the New River Gorge Bridge at Wikipedia.
Thanks to SteveH and Loren.
About the author
Alex has decided that his title will be Senior Vice President of Stuff.
The old bridge is also a popular takeout for a few fantastic white water rafting trips. Some rafts in the water upstream here.
You have to mention the BASE jumping. Every year they allow BASE jumping for one day. Been to it once, pretty awesome. Probably one of the few places it is legal.
Cool photos on the site, too. http://www.officialbridgeday.com/index.html
Hmm… According to the Source of all Knowledge, Wikipedia, the Royal Gorge Bridge in Colorado is the bridge with the highest deck-to-surface clearance in the world: 321 m as opposed to “only” 270 m for the Viaduct the Millau and a mere 267 m for the New River Gorge Bridge.
Here it is, https://www.googlesightseeing.com/maps?p=&c=&t=h&hl=en&ll=38.460646,-105.327344&z=16
Priceless: “The height of the bridge makes it an attractive spot for suicide by jumping”
And then there is the Chenab Bridge in India, 359 m, due to be completed this year!
@ dr.R. – that’s a mighty high bridge! Whilst very interesting, it’s actually competing in a different category – it’s only for pedestrians, and not cars.
http://en.structurae.de/structures/data/index.cfm?ID=s0001403
Well, I would argue it’s the overall winner in the category “uncategorised bridges” 😉
The flicker pics are astounding.