New River Gorge

The words

1. Bridge Day

   During Bridge Day, the highway bridge opens to pedestrians for a festival with music, vendors, rappelling and parachute jumps from the span.

   Park Service: Gorge Bridge and Bridge Day (opens a new tab)

2. Canyon Rim

   Canyon Rim Visitor Center combines gorge and bridge overlooks with exhibits on local people, towns and industry. Its sandstone and red-oak construction echoes the materials of the surrounding landscape.

   Park Service: Canyon Rim (opens a new tab)

3. Coal Tipple

   A structure used to sort coal and load it for shipment.

   At Nuttallburg, the tipple stood over railroad tracks below the mine. Coal came down a hillside conveyor before being loaded into cars for distant markets.

   Park Service: Nuttallburg history (opens a new tab) · Park Service: Nuttallburg work and life (opens a new tab)

4. Coke Ovens

   Ovens that made coke, a fuel used in iron and steel production.

   The Park Service links Kaymoor’s coke output to Low Moor’s iron furnaces. Production ended in 1933, and waste rock from the tipple was later dumped over the ovens.

   Park Service: Kaymoor coke ovens (opens a new tab) · Park Service: Nuttallburg work and life (opens a new tab)

5. Endless Wall

   The Endless Wall Trail passes through forest and crosses Fern Creek before following the sandstone cliffs above the New River. Diamond Point offers a view from this long rock rim.

   Park Service: Endless Wall (opens a new tab)

6. Gorge Bridge

   The New River Gorge Bridge carries US 19 high across the valley, replacing a descent along narrow mountain roads. It opened on October 22, 1977.

   Did you know?

   West Virginia’s state quarter featured the New River Gorge Bridge. The state transportation department dates the coin’s release to October 14, 2005.

   Park Service: Gorge Bridge and Bridge Day (opens a new tab) · West Virginia DOT: Gorge Bridge history (opens a new tab)

7. Grandview

   Grandview’s Main Overlook stands about 1,400 feet (427 m) above the New River. The view takes in the gorge, a railway and Quinnimont, a town linked to early coal shipping.

   Did you know?

   The state transferred Grandview to the National Park Service in 1990. Roads and picnic facilities there had been built by the Civilian Conservation Corps.

   Park Service: Grandview landscape and history (opens a new tab)

8. Hellbender

   This large aquatic salamander inhabits rocky streams in the park’s watershed. It shelters beneath stones during the day and feeds mainly on crayfish, hunting after dark.

   Did you know?

   Park researchers collected tributary water for hellbender DNA testing in 2017. The results included a positive detection in one New River Gorge stream.

   Park Service: Hellbender habitat and research (opens a new tab)

9. Kaymoor

   Kaymoor was established in 1899 to supply coal for the Low Moor Iron Company’s furnaces. The mining settlement combined industrial works with company-built housing on the gorge’s slopes.

   Park Service: Kaymoor origins (opens a new tab)

10. Long Point

    Long Point is a rock outcrop reached through field and forest. Its position gives a broad view of the gorge and the bridge spanning the New River.

    Park Service: Long Point (opens a new tab)

11. Nuttallburg

    Nuttallburg’s mining community depended on the railroad. The Park Service describes “racially-distant neighborhoods”: African American families lived east of Short Creek and white families west, despite working together underground.

    Did you know?

    Henry Ford leased Nuttallburg’s mines to supply his steel mills, but he could not control the railroad carrying the coal. He sold his interests in 1928.

    Park Service: Nuttallburg work and life (opens a new tab) · Park Service: Nuttallburg history (opens a new tab)

12. Smallmouth

    The New River supports smallmouth bass, fish with bronze or brownish green bodies and dark vertical bars. Adults in streams feed mainly on minnows and crayfish.

    Park Service: New River fish (opens a new tab) · NC Wildlife: Smallmouth bass biology (opens a new tab)

13. Steel Arch

    The arch uses Cor-Ten steel, which develops a rust-like protective layer. Leaving it unpainted reduced painting costs and helped the bridge blend with the natural surroundings.

    West Virginia DOT: Gorge Bridge history (opens a new tab)

14. Thurmond

    Thurmond’s depot served passengers downstairs and railroad operations upstairs, including telegraph and dispatch work. The 1904 building preserves the workings of a town organized around the railway.

    Park Service: Thurmond depot (opens a new tab)

15. Whitewater

    In the New River, current speed changes with the channel’s width and steepness. Its lower gorge has larger rapids than the upper reaches, drawing whitewater paddlers to the turbulent water.

    Park Service: River flow and geology (opens a new tab) · Park Service: New River whitewater (opens a new tab)