New River Gorge Bridge

Yesterday we were site seeing the area of Thurmond,West Virginia a small coal mining town that was over crowded with tourist in the 20's through the 40's.  

 One lane bridge with the rail along side.

 It is hard to believe that twenty passenger trains a day would stop here in Thurmond and the population at its highest was only 500 people.  Maybe people would come for the scenery(which is still the beautiful mountains)or they wanted to see what a small coal mining community looked like.

 The bank that housed the money made from the coal.

Glenn Jean the next town over had a bank also.  The old bank building now is the headquarters for the National Park Service here in the New River Gorge.

 Arching gracefully across the New River, the bridge has the world's longest single arch steel span. At 876 feet above the New River, it is the second highest bridge in this country. Only the Royal Gorge Bridge over the Arkansas River in Colorado is higher. Yesterday we went over,under and around the bridge and got a very good look at the the bridge from every angle. 

 Rafters floating down New River.  All around the area we saw people(mostly young) enjoying the many activities the is offered to them.