Jump!

 Bridge Day

I was so wrong about what

 today was celebrating.

I was thinking bridges…

history…

dry facts and boring stories…

(The New River Gorge Bridge

is a steel arch bridge.

It is 924m long.

It has a 518m long arch. )

but, no. Bridge Day is less about

the bridge and more about the people

 jumping from the bridge!

BASE jumpers!

Base stands for Building, Antenna,

Span and Earth and BASE jumpers

will leap off any of these four things,

 using specially designed –

fast deployment parachutes.

 On Bridge Day,

base jumpers get together

and throw themselves

off the New River Gorge Bridge!

(West Virginia, USA)

This is the only day of the year

they can legally do this.

The bridge is 267metres high

 and about 400 base jumpers

are expected to join the fun.

The four lane bridge will be closed

 to traffic and pedestrians will take

 over for the day.

I was about to plan

my base jumping debut,

when I learned three people have died

 after jumping from the bridge…

I think I’ll hold off,

for a while.

  Picture