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Above : One of many BASE jumpers on Bridge Day . Left : The New River , as seen from U . S . Route 60 .
But no one in Burkes Garden would sell ! One farmer told him , “ The only way to get land in Burkes Garden is inherit it or marry it !” Mr . Vanderbilt settled for a few thousand acres in North Carolina .
After touring Burkes Garden , I made a short jaunt across the West Virginia state line to Princeton , where I spent the night . The next morning I rode up to the New River Gorge Bridge .
It turned out my timing could not have been better , as I arrived on Bridge Day . It seems once a year , the civicminded folks in West Virginia — along with a little help from the National Park Service — close U . S . Route 19 across the New River Gorge Bridge and open it to pedestrians in a festival-like atmosphere called Bridge Day . What ’ s more , dozens of BASE jumpers line up for a chance to jump off the 876-foot-high bridge into the gorge . And people say motorcycle riding is risky !