CHARLESTON, W.Va. – The West Virginia Department of Tourism today announced a contest to award one thrill-seeker the opportunity to tandem BASE jump from the New River Gorge Bridge this fall. The winner of the contest will receive a free trip to West Virginia and the opportunity of a lifetime as a part of Bridge Day festivities in the nation’s newest national park. Daredevils from all over the U.S. and Canada are encouraged to sign up for the chance to win at wvtourism.com/contest/.
Each year, the New River Gorge National Park & Preserve hosts Bridge Day, the nation’s premier extreme sports event, where nearly 150,000 spectators watch as 350 BASE jumpers parachute 876 feet into the Gorge’s stunning fall colors. Bridge Day is West Virginia’s largest single-day festival and one of the largest extreme sports events in the world. Held annually on the third Saturday in October on the New River Gorge Bridge in Fayette County, this is the only day each year that spectators can walk across the fifth-longest steel-arch bridge in the world as daredevils take the plunge into one of the oldest rivers in the world and an area recognized by TIME as One of the World’s Greatest Places.
“Bridge Day is one of the world’s top extreme-sports events, and we are thrilled to offer one lucky daredevil the opportunity to join us and literally fly with some of the world’s most spectacular fall foliage as a backdrop,” said West Virginia Tourism Secretary Chelsea Ruby.
