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Biggest extreme Sports Events

October 20, 2012

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Profile America -- Saturday, October 20th. The world's biggest extreme sports event, as well as West Virginia's largest festival, is being held today at the New River Gorge Bridge Day. Up to 500 so-called "base" jumpers are expected to leap off the nation's longest single span bridge, 876 feet above the new river. They will free fall a set distance, and then end their adventure with a parachute. Up to 80,000 spectators will gather at various points to watch. Only experienced jumpers and rapellers are allowed. However, the general public is welcome to ride a 700-foot highline, originating from the catwalk under the bridge. The New River Gorge Bridge is among the most spectacular in the nation's inventory of just over 600,000 spans. Profile America is in its 16th year as a public service of the U.S. Census Bureau.

Sources: Chase's Calendar of Events 2012, p. 514
www.officialbridgeday.com/new-river-gorge-bridge
Statistical Abstract of the United States 2012, t. 1090
http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2012edition.html