Parachutists Leap for Joy at Bridge

Chris Stokely walked the plank, happily stepping off into hundreds of feet of nothing but air and plummeting into the depths of the New River Gorge. “Thank you, West Virginia!” the 24-year-old from Houston yelled as he made a legal parachute jump from a four-lane highway bridge. Stokely was one of nearly 400 parachutists who signed up to take advantage of the 17th annual Bridge Day, a celebration of the 876-foot-high, steel-arch span that bypassed a two-lane track twisting up and down the gorge’s steep sides. It’s the nation’s second-highest bridge, behind Colorado’s 1,053-foot Royal Gorge Bridge over the Arkansas River. One unidentified man suffered minor injuries after landing in a tree and was treated at the scene. Eight other jumpers were taken to a hospital with back and ankle injuries, rescue officials said.