Once a year the highway comes off the New River Gorge Bridge, tens of thousands of people walk out onto the deck, and BASE jumpers step off the rail and fall toward a river 876 feet below. That's Bridge Day, and in 2026 it's Saturday, October 17, from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM. It's free, it goes ahead rain or shine, and U.S. 19 closes to traffic from 7:00 AM to 5:00 PM, so you park at a shuttle lot on your side of the gorge and ride in for $5 a person, cash only, starting at 8:30 AM.
The Park Service calls it West Virginia's largest one-day festival, and it's the only day of the year the public gets to stroll the deck. Jumping from the bridge is illegal on every other day, which is a big part of the thrill: you're watching something that simply doesn't happen the rest of the year.
The Bridge Day 2026 schedule
The day starts before sunrise for vendors and winds down with chili downtown. Here's how it runs, per the Bridge Day Commission, with the cook-off's finish time from the Fayetteville CVB.
| Time | What happens |
|---|---|
| 5:30 AM | Vendors arrive; the I-79 and I-64/77 detour goes into place |
| 7:00 AM | Route 19 closes to traffic |
| 7:00 to 8:00 AM | Bridge Day 5K racers arrive |
| 8:15 AM | Buses transport 5K racers |
| 8:30 AM | Shuttles begin at the designated lots |
| 8:45 AM | The 5K starts |
| 9:00 AM | Bridge Day begins; Into the Gorge bus rides start |
| 1:30 PM | Into the Gorge bus rides end |
| 3:00 PM | Bridge Day ends; the chili cook-off starts downtown |
| 5:00 PM | Route 19 reopens |
| 6:00 PM | Chili cook-off ends |
One race page says the road reopens at 4:00 PM, but the organizer runs the closure and says 5:00, so plan on 5:00.
What you'll see: BASE jumpers, rappellers and the highline
Walk out past the vendor booths (160 to 200 of them, depending on who's counting) and follow the crowd to the rail. BASE jumpers launch from a platform on the deck and their canopies pop open over the gorge, while rappellers drop on ropes from the catwalk underneath. The numbers are wild: in 2025 the organizer counted 315 jumpers from 35 states and 4 countries making 752 jumps and 16 tandems, plus 635 rappels, 50 ascents back up the ropes and 132 highline riders.
Feeling inspired? Hold that thought. Jumpers need 50 prior parachute, skydive or BASE jumps and a $95 jump pass, and registration opened July 1. The Bridge Day BASE site closes registration Tuesday, October 13, 2026, and jumpers check in by 5:00 PM Friday, October 16, at River Expeditions Campground, 900 Broadway Avenue, Oak Hill. Most make two or three jumps, with ten the published maximum. The organizer is blunt that BASE jumping is inherently dangerous and potentially fatal; rescue boats, gear checks and an optional river landing reduce the risk without removing it.
Rappel teams are chosen by lottery in June, and every rappeller must be seasoned, rack-trained and have done at least a 250-foot rappel. The highline is the one thrill that asks for no experience at all: riders zip 700 feet from the bridge catwalk down to Fayette Station Road. The rappel program's site had individual rappel and highline registration open in early September, without posted fees. Benjy Simpson, rappel coordinator since 1992, is at 304-663-1980.
Tickets worth booking ahead
Into the Gorge is the other side of the show: a bus ride down Fayette Station Road to the Tunney Hunsaker Bridge at river level, where you look straight up at the jumpers. It's $75 a person plus tax, goes on sale in January and, the organizer warns, "sell[s] out very quickly." Buses head down from 9:00 AM to 1:30 PM, the last one back up leaves around 3:30 PM, and there's no food at the bottom, so pack a snack. Pick up your wristband, with ID and your confirmation email, at the first Official Bridge Day tent inside either security gate between 9:00 AM and 1:30 PM.
This year has a wrinkle. After the August 15 and 16 flash floods, the Park Service extended its Fayette Station Road closure, WOAY reported, and whether the road will be open for Into the Gorge on October 17 wasn't settled in early September. Ticket holders should call the Chamber at 304-465-5617 in early October.
Want to be under the deck instead of on it? The Bridge Walk catwalk tour, 25 feet below the roadway, runs out to the halfway point on Bridge Day for $125 a person in 2026. Check in on the north side 15 minutes before your time; 222 people did it in 2025.
Runners get their own way across. The Bridge Day 5K, run by Active Southern West Virginia, starts at 8:45 AM on the Route 19 northbound lanes just north of the bridge and finishes at the historic courthouse on North Court Street. It's $65 until 11:59 PM on September 27, 2026, then the price climbs, and the field is capped at a few hundred, so don't wait.
Friday night tasting and Saturday chili
Start the weekend at Taste of Bridge Day, the Canyon Rim Rotary Club's Friday-night food party: October 16, 5:00 to 9:00 PM at Adventures on the Gorge. Getting in is free, samples run $4 to $12, and you'll want to arrive before 8:00 PM because the food sells out.
When the bridge closes Saturday, the party moves to town. The 16th annual chili cook-off runs from 3:00 to 6:00 PM in front of the Fayette County Courthouse, 100 North Court Street, with free admission and parking, tastings by ticket and the Long Point String Band on stage.
Getting to Bridge Day: detours, shuttles and parking
The closure splits the region in two until 5:00 PM. Commercial through traffic goes around on I-79 and I-64/77 from 5:30 AM. Local traffic on U.S. 19 can reach Ames Heights Road on the north and WV 16 on the south, and the organizer is clear about everyone else: "If you are not an integral part of the success and safety of the event...you must take the detour." The local detour is U.S. 60 through Ansted and WV 16, and news reports put it at roughly 30 to 45 extra minutes before traffic. The easy fix is getting here the night before, to a room on the same side of the gorge as your shuttle lot.
Pick a side, then a shuttle lot
This is the one decision that shapes your whole day: once the road closes, you're on one side of the gorge until late afternoon, and the way around is long. South-side lots are in Fayetteville and Oak Hill; north-side lots are in Hico.
| Side | Lot | Address | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| South | Fayette Landing Shopping Center | 565 Mall Rd, Oak Hill | Some 2026 guides list Oak Hill High School, 350 West Oyler Avenue, instead |
| South | Fayetteville Walmart | 204 Town Center | Pickup at the far-left side of the store |
| South | Fayetteville High School (PK-8) | 515 W Maple Ave | Pickup at the upper gravel-area entrance |
| South | Fayetteville Courthouse | 100 N Court St | Pickup on Maple Avenue near Southside Junction and Marathon Bicycle |
| North | Smales Branch Road (Lighthouse Worship Center) | 1175 Smales Branch Rd, Hico | |
| North | Midland Trail High School | Route 19 and US 60 (26719 Midland Trail, Hico) | ADA accessible |
Headed for Oak Hill? The official lists don't agree on which lot, Fayette Landing or Oak Hill High School (which is ADA accessible, and where jumper buses go), so call the Chamber at 304-465-5617 before you commit. Fayetteville Town Park on Park Drive is a drop-off point only. Bring $5 in cash for every person in your group.
The shuttles are school and resort buses that turn around at either end of the bridge, so note the color or spot of your bus for the trip back. Locals on Reddit call Walmart the easiest south-side lot to find and also the busiest, and like the smaller downtown Fayetteville lots for shorter waits. Expect lines anyway: on a warm 2025 day that drew about 120,000 people, waits ran long despite extra buses.
Here's the insider move. A BASE jumper writing on the organizer's blog and WV Executive's insider guide both suggest reaching your lot by about 8:00 AM and heading straight to the jump platform before you browse, since the first rounds draw thinner crowds and the rail fills toward midday.
Other ways in are limited. There's no bike valet in 2026 and bikes aren't allowed inside the festival. The organizer does allow walking or biking down Fayette Station Road into the gorge, "a 4+ mile distance one way," though the flood closure may change that this year. Roadside parking on Ames Heights and Lansing roads is legal only with your vehicle completely off the pavement, and it still leaves a quarter- to half-mile walk to the gate, so for a first visit the shuttle wins. Don't plan on Canyon Rim Visitor Center, either: in 2025 the Park Service closed it at 5:30 PM the Friday before and towed vehicles left inside.
Once you're in, wear good shoes. The bridge is 3,030 feet long, so one lap end to end and back is a little over a mile. Past years' visitors found the crowd thins beyond the main jump zone, with food and toilets on the approaches rather than the center span. And if you'd rather have the park without the festival, locals point to Sandstone and Grandview as the quiet corners that day, though fall-color traffic is still heavy.
What you can bring through security
Everyone goes through a checkpoint, and the organizer's list leaves no room for interpretation:
- "NO dogs," and "Pets are not permitted at Bridge Day."
- "NO coolers, or folding chairs"
- "NO bicycles, skates, skateboards or wagons"
- "NO weapons, fireworks, illegal drugs, or alcoholic beverages"
- "NO quadcopters/drones"
Leave the backpack at home. Backpacks, tote bags, large purses, camera bags and binocular cases are all out; clear backpacks, clear totes, fanny packs and a purse or clutch smaller than 5 by 7 inches are fine.
Strollers and service animals are the gray areas. The organizer allows fold-up strollers (searched at the gate), but the Park Service's page says strollers aren't permitted on the bridge, and the rules on service dogs vary from page to page. If you need either, ask the Chamber before you go. Drones are out twice over: the event bans them, and the park's compendium requires the superintendent's written approval to fly over park land any day of the year.
Where to stay for Bridge Day, and when to book
Book early. Really early. Rooms fill fast, the Fayetteville CVB's 2026 guide warns; one year rooms sold out as far away as Wheeling and into Virginia, and plenty of regulars book the moment BASE registration opens in July. Choosing where to stay also picks your side of the gorge for the day, so match your room to your shuttle lot.
A few places have posted 2026 Bridge Day rates. The Resort at Glade Springs has an October 16 to 18 package from $140 a person per night, plus tax and resort fee, with breakfast and a gate shuttle. Happy Camper New River charges $100 a night for up to four adults (deposits nonrefundable), and Country Roads Vacation Cabin showed $215 a night for October 16 and 17 with a two-night minimum. Hill Hall Hotel, new in town since August 28, 2026 at 135 High Street, has 40 rooms from $225 but no Bridge Day rate posted. Want to paddle too? River Expeditions' Bridge Day Weekend Blowout bundles three nights of camping, a light breakfast and a Saturday rafting trip: $165 a person on the Lower New, $230 on the Upper Gauley. The map on this page shows live prices for the weekend.
Crowds, weather and what changes each year
Nobody counts heads at the gate, so crowd figures are estimates, and they swing: about 82,000 in 2023, somewhere between 120,000 and 140,000 in 2022, around 130,000 in 2024 and more than 120,000 by the governor's count in 2025. Either way, you won't be lonely.
Mid-October weather is a coin flip. Normal for the date is a high near 64 F and a low near 44 F, but Fayetteville's October 17 records run from 33.1 F (2020) to 80.1 F (2007). The 2025 event hit about 80 F, while the 1995 jumps went ahead in rain, 40-degree temperatures and a 25 mph wind. The organizer's advice is the right one: dress warm and bring a waterproof layer.
Paddlers, take note: in 2026 the final Gauley release weekend lands on Bridge Day. The river conditions page has this year's release days. Prices and closures shift every year, so re-check in the first week of October, and browse the events calendar for the rest of the October lineup around the gorge.
How Bridge Day started
The story of the bridge and Bridge Day begins with one illegal night jump. The bridge opened on October 22, 1977, and in August 1979 Burton Ervin, an Army veteran and mine foreman from Webster County, parachuted off it at night. Then he dreamed up a festival that would make jumping legal. The Fayette County Chamber of Commerce held the first Bridge Day on November 8, 1980: two skydivers landed on the bridge, five parachutists jumped from it, and 5,500 walkers earned completion certificates in front of a crowd put near 40,000. The Legislature created the Bridge Day Commission in 1990 to help the Chamber plan it.
The festival has been cancelled three times: in 2001 after the September 11 attacks (a downtown "Spirit of Bridge Day" and the first Taste of Bridge Day filled the gap), and in 2020 and 2021, before its return in 2022. It has also cost lives. The Park Service's history notes the event was nearly cancelled after a jumper died in 1983, and in 2006 Brian Lee Schubert, 66, of Alta Loma, California, died when his parachute opened about 25 feet above the water, the Associated Press reported, the first Bridge Day death since 1987.
