Newspaper Page Text
Hometown
Spotlight
Fayette County’s
Freefall
by R ICH ARD
MCVEY
Editor H
/■>
■
John McDonald, 39, stands
nervously atop the New River Gorge Bridge in
Fayette County, W.Va. (pop. 47,579). Pausing to
enjoy one of the state’s most spectacular views,
the Orlando, Fla., parachutist looks down at the
river 876 feet below and leaps otf the bridge as
thousands of onlookers cheer.
“When you first jump it's totally quiet,” says
McDonald, whose sport is called BASE jump
ing because participants jump off “buildings,
antennas, spans and earth." "Then the wind
starts picking up and it turns into a roar."
Four seconds into his freefall off the H
nation's second highest bridge, McDon
aid opens his parachute and guides him- B '
sell to a landing spot along the New Me’
River’s edge.
McDonald is among 384
BASE jumpers from around
world who participated
in last year’s Bridge Day, fl§T
a celebration ot the world’s
second longest single-arch
bridge—measuring 3,0.30 v^r
feet long with a 1,700-foot
arch span. The annual Octo-
her tood, arts
craft booths, and strolls along
the one-half mile bridge. Some
100,000 people come each year to
watch BASE jumpers plunge off
BASE jumper John McDonald prior
to his perilous 876-foot plunge
the bridge and rappellers using harnesses
and ropes to descend from the magnificent
steel span.
“It’s an exciting thing to watch," says Jes- W'
frey Dorsey ot the BASE jumpers. “It seems B
like Bridge Day just gets bigger and better B
every year. ” Dorsey, 41, traveled from Hun- &
tington, W.Va. (pop. 51,475), with his wife
Stephanie, 39, and their 18-month-old daughter,
Jenna. “It’s a big family outing for us," Stephanie
adds. “And it’s an all-around good event."
. Lisa Pilom, a 34-year-old rappeller from
Windsor, Ontario, agrees. “It’s such a good
jra time,” she says. “You’ve got the festival for the
Bp people who want to visit the booths, you’ve
*, got the jumpers, the rappellers, rafting on the
river below; you can’t go wrong. Plus, the
/ area is beautiful.”
Located north of Fayetteville (pop.
2,754), along Highway 19, the bridge
■ B is the property of the West Virginia
■|H Department of Highways. The area
below is part of the New River
rrS Gorge National River, run by the
<*■' • National Park Service.
Park Ranger Leah Perkowski
'O,/s'i.y ifk has worked each Bridge Day since
B joining the park service 13 years
T ago. “If you find me flying off
Ba the bridge, there's probably been
|v a crime involved," Perkowski
|V Wp jokes. Last year, she helped ensure
-JM the safety of spectators who stood
i 2 y
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Thrill seekers parachute
from the New River Gorge
Bridge in West Virginia
during the annual Bridge
Day celebration.
Eh along the river’s edge watching BASE
jumpers land. “The jumpers try to land
in the drop zone, but some will tell you
they want to end up in the river because
it’s a softer landing.”
The origins of Bridge Day date back
to the bridge’s completion on Oct. 22, 1977.
“We had a ceremony to dedicate the bridge on
the third Saturday of October back in 1977,”
says Doug Maddy, who at the time was execu
tive director of the Fayette County Chamber of
Commerce, which still hosts the free event. “I
think collectively when everybody looked out
over the bridge and saw the view—it was the
peak of our fall foliage and the bridge was mag
nificent—everybody there said, ‘We need to do
this again.’”
In 1980, with the support of then-West Vir
ginia Gov. Jay Rockefeller, Bridge Day became
a reality, and 150,000 wide-eyed people came
(Continued on page 8)
4 .»! «
Mom- than 100,000 t-.ii*n •.
Brirlgo V>,iy tin- *.t at
l.irgC'.l our * I.»y f« M.V..1
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