New River Gorge Bridge (USA) - longest arch bridge in United States
Where is located New River Gorge Bridge?
Address of New River Gorge Bridge is Fayetteville, West Virginia, USA
show on map
When was built New River Gorge Bridge?
Built date of New River Gorge Bridge is June 1974 - October 22, 1978
Facts, informations and history of New River Gorge Bridge
The bridge weighs 88 million pounds, half of which is steel and concrete.Every year on the third Saturday in October the bridge is completely open to pedestrians, on this day over a quarter of a million people come here to watch various attractions. One of the biggest attractions is the possibility of jumping on Bungee or with a parachute.
Thanks to the construction of this bridge it was possible to cross the river in less than one minute. Before building the bridge, you had to go 40 miles down the river to reach the other shore, to the nearest bridge, which took about 40 minutes.
New River Gorge is the longest arched steel bridge in the world. It is also the second highest bridges in the United States, just after the Royal Gorge Bridge.
Construction was very complicated, four 90-meter towers were built first, then the helicopter pulled 1.5 kilometers of half-inch cable between the towers, then thicker cables were thrown until the cable was so thick that it was possible to slowly move the steel on it.
To avoid trouble in the position of the last - middle element, the arcs on both sides of the edge were slightly raised, and when connected to the last element, they were lowered. Now all you have to do is place the trusses, the road and the pavement.
The width of the bridge is approximately 21 meters, each element has been made with a 1/100 inch tolerance, and the heaviest one weighs 184,000 pounds.
Before the current shape of the bridge was decided, three other proposals were rejected, the first proposed to put up a continuous lattice bridge, was rejected due to too large support piles, which height had to be to be several hundred meters. The second assumed the construction of a suspension bridge, rejected due to too high execution costs. The third project proposed the construction of a penknife-shaped bridge, but it was rejected because of too much concrete needed to stabilize the structure.
Architect of New River Gorge Bridge
Construction/building type
Building New River Gorge Bridge is of type Arch bridge
Other dimensions, parameters and frequently asked questions
How many meters have New River Gorge Bridge?
New River Gorge Bridge have length 924 meters
518 meters - the length of the arch
What material is the building made of?
New River Gorge Bridge is made of the following materials: Steel, concrete
Cost
Build cost of New River Gorge Bridge is 37 million dollars
Official website
The official website of the building, where up-to-date information can be found, is http://officialbridgeday.com
Comments to New River Gorge Bridge (9) Average rating: 4,0 Add comment / Rate building
Based on 9 comments