New River Gorge Bridge

 The next morning I stopped to look at the New River Gorge Bridge. The bridge used to be the longest steel arch bridge in the world, now bypassed by the Lupu Bridge in Shanghai, and is featured on the West Virginia State Quarter (currency).  The bridge is 3,030 ft long, with an arch length of 1,700 ft.  It is 87 ft high and is the second highest bridge in the US, behind the Royal Gorge Bridge in Colorado (See my Colorado Springs blog).  The river is popular with white water rafters and once a year they open the dam to release water - prime white water rafting.  I think it is called something like Gaulley Days.  I was a week early, so the river was low and empty of rafters.  I stopped at Sandstone Falls - which were quite a distance away from the road, but still pretty.  The winding roads were fun to drive on, especially with the fall colors just starting to change.