West Virginia’s Architectural Wonder
posted by on 06/2/09
On the way down to the Nashville Conference, we stopped at two different places: the New River Gorge Bridge in southern West Virginia, and the Bates Family home in Knoxville Tennessee.
876 feet. That’s the amount of vertical space between the New River Gorge Bridge and the white-water rapids of the New River below. This is enough space to move both the Washington Monument and the Statue of Liberty, stacked on top of each other, underneath with room to spare.
The bridge is the longest single-arch, steel bridge in the world. At 3,030 feet long, 70 feet wide, and exhibiting 88 million pounds of U.S. Cor Ten steel and American cement, this bridge has become a symbol of the wonder of West Virginia. Opened on October 22, 1977, it is still standing for us to utilize and take pictures of in 2009.
From West Virginia’s architectural wonder, we moved on to Tennessee. In tomorrows post, we will cover the inimitably unique details of our stop at the Bates’ house!
Great pics. I’ve been to that bridge, before the Lord saved me, when I was white water rafting. And living a life about as wild. The second time was after the Lord saved me. We were going to pick up like 20,000 copies of the first printing of my sisters gospel tract, “Answer for Cancer”. I think we even stopped at the bridge and shared the gospel with someone. Praise the Lord, thank you for bringing back some fond memories.
That is quickly becoming a memorable site. This past visit was the first time Jonathan, David, and I had run all the way down to the overlook and back up with just a short break to see the view. Excellent photos, James! They capture the grandeur of the bridge’s “architectural wonder” perfectly.
It was good to take a break and walk around there after riding in the car for so long. But I think we overdid it a little. After running down and looking at the bridge, Daniel suggested, “Let’s see if we can run all the way to the top skipping every stair.”
Jonathan and James enthusiastically agreed and started up leaving no other choice for me but to follow behind. I did fulfill the challenge, but at the top of all 166 stairs I was so worn out I collapsed in the van and fell fast asleep.
Amazing.
Our family has given out quite a few of those “Answer for Cancer” tracts. I didn’t know she was your sister!
That was a fun story, David! Thanks for sharing, James. It was fun watching/hearing you find all the facts as you wrote the post, too!
It’s incredible to think that man will willingly acknowledge that there was a creator of such a structure, then avowedly claim that the universe came about by chance!
That’s great to hear.
Beautiful pictures James.
Very true Allen.
There is far more of God’s power (photosynthesis, capillary action, etc.), design, and balance in those wild, wonderful, living WV trees than in all the comparatively simple forces and design of the bridge.