On Tuesday, August 4, Erin Riebe will discuss the construction of the New River Gorge Bridge in the Archives and History Library of the Culture Center in Charleston. The program will begin at 6:00 p.m. and is free and open to the public.
The New River Gorge Bridge was the most expensive undertaking of the Appalachian Development Highway System. The ADHS was authorized in 1965 to provide economic development in isolated areas and also to supplement the growing interstate system, providing access to areas within the region. The opening of the bridge in 1977 reduced the drive across the gorge at this location from a 45-minute drive on winding and often treacherous roads to less than one minute. Once it opened to regular traffic, the bridge played an important role in the development of the area, linking areas north and south of the gorge as well as West Virginia’s “Corridor L Communities” with the rest of the state.
At time of construction, the bridge’s arch made it the longest steel arch bridge in the world, a title it held until 2003 with the construction of China’s Shanghai’s Lupu Bridge. Though the bridge itself employs a fairly conventional design, its construction represents a number of construction achievements. The engineers and ironworkers overcame major obstacles due to its enormous scale and the then-remote Appalachian location.
In her presentation, Erin Riebe, National Register of Historic Places coordinator with the West Virginia State Historic Preservation Office, will detail the history of the efforts to plan and construct the New River Gorge Bridge which was listed in the National Register in 2013 at the young age of 36.
On August 4, the library will close at 5:00 p.m. and reopen at 5:45 p.m. for participants only. For additional information, contact the Archives and History Library at (304) 558-0230.
If you have been unable to attend some of our recent evening programs, please check the Archives and History’s YouTube page: (http://www.youtube.com/user/wvarchivesandhistory).
