Take a walk on the wild side

It’s one thing to drive across the breath-taking New River Gorge in southern West Virginia. Quite another to walk across beneath the belly of a bridge.

Adventures on the Gorge offers hikes across a 24-inch-wide steel beam underneath the New River Gorge Bridge that’s almost 1,000 feet above the river! The 3,030-foot-long iconic West Virginia site was built in the 1970s and was for decades the longest Steel Arch bridge in the world (now the fourth) and is still the longest in North America. And for years folks would sneak on to the bridge to walk across, as crazy as that may seem.

Now, Adventures on the Gorge places participants into harnesses on a wire-and-pulley system and guides them through the bridge’s catwalk while discussing the natural history of the area as well as the bridge's impressive architecture. The cost of the half-day tour is $69 per person — minimum age is 10 — and tours are offered daily during the winter.

The New River Gorge Bridge is located along U.S. Route 19 near Fayetteville, West Virgina.

For more information about Adventures on the Gorge, which offers a wide variety of fun-filled adventures as well as accommodations along the rim of New River Gorge, visit https://www.adventuresonthegorge.com/.

Note: Most of the information for this post was derived from a press release.

Cheré Dastugue Coen is a food and travel writer living in South Louisiana who is the author of several Louisiana romances under the pen name of Cherie Claire and the author of “Forest Hill, Louisiana: A Bloom Town History,” “Haunted Lafayette, Louisiana” and “Exploring Cajun Country” and co-author of “Magic’s in the Bag: Creating Spellbinding Gris Gris Bags and Sachets.” Write her at cherecoen@gmail.com.