New River Gorge National Park

New River Gorge National Park in southern West Virginia protects a 53-mile stretch of the New River canyon, one of the oldest rivers in North America and among the deepest river gorges in the eastern United States. The New River Gorge Bridge, completed in 1977 and spanning 3,030 feet across the gorge at 876 feet above the river, held the record as the world's longest single-arch steel bridge for three decades. The canyon walls support extensive rock climbing routes on sandstone and conglomerate, and the river is a major whitewater rafting destination with Class IV and V rapids.