Overview Bridge Day is the one Saturday a year when the New River Gorge Bridge in West Virginia closes to traffic, opens to people on foot, and BASE jumpers are allowed to leap from it, 876 feet above the river. It falls on the third Saturday in October. The bridge carries U.S. 19 across the gorge inside New River Gorge National Park and Preserve; it opened in 1977 and runs 3,030 feet. The New River Gorge Bridge Day Commission runs the day, and the Fayette County Chamber of Commerce sells its sponsorships. Entry is free. On site The highway closes from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. and the four lanes fill with walkers, food and craft vendors and sponsor booths on both the north and south sides. Jumping runs from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., weather permitting: jumpers leave the bridge, some of them launched by a catapult, fall for three or four seconds and steer toward a landing zone at Fayette Station by the river. Rappellers work down ropes from the deck and back up, visitors with no experience can ride the highline, and guided walkers clip onto a safety cable on the catwalk 25 feet under the road. There are no backpacks, coolers, dogs or alcohol on the bridge, and people arrive on park-and-ride shuttles from lots on both sides of the gorge. The Bridge Day 5K starts on the bridge and finishes in downtown Fayetteville. Audience Spectators watch from two places: on the bridge itself, or at the bottom of the gorge by the Tunney Hunsaker Bridge, reached by presold Into the Gorge bus rides down Fayette Station Road, where there is no food and people bring their own. Rafting outfitters run trips on the Class IV water below. The jumpers themselves travel in: the festival puts their average age at 32, 12% of them women, from more than 35 states and 10 countries. Track record The first BASE jump from the bridge was made in August 1979, and the first Bridge Day was held in 1980; rappelling joined in 1981. The day was called off in 2001 and again in 2020 and 2021. In 2025, 315 jumpers made 752 jumps plus 16 tandems, rappellers made 635 descents and 50 ascents, 132 people rode the highline and 222 walked the catwalk. Brand presence The Chamber sells the day element by element. The presenting partner carries a "presented by" credit and signs at the entrance to each end of the bridge, with booth frontage on both sides. Official partners can hold category exclusivity when they sign before April 1. Single-partner positions sit where the cameras point: signage on the catapult and on the scissor lift at the jump site, the bullseye at the landing zone, the logo on every event wristband with the Into the Gorge buses, the park-and-ride shuttle buses, the lanyards and the livestream of the jumps. Partners can use select Bridge Day photos and b-roll in their own marketing.