A Cold War bunker under a resort, the country's longest arch bridge, a college that lost its team
Three West Virginia airports, three weighted American stories. KLWB Greenbrier Valley is the field for The Greenbrier, where a 112,544-square-foot Cold War bunker sat in constant readiness for thirty years, built 720 feet into the hillside beneath the West Virginia Wing to hold every member of Congress; the town knew, and kept the secret until The Washington Post broke it in 1992. Northwest to KBKW Beaver for the New River Gorge Bridge: 3,030 feet long and 876 feet over the river, the longest single-span arch in the world for 26 years after its 1977 completion, and still the longest steel span in the Western Hemisphere; on Bridge Day, the third Saturday of October, pedestrians and BASE jumpers take it over. West to KHTS Huntington, where Southern Airways Flight 932 came down a mile short of the runway on November 14, 1970, killing all 75 aboard, including 37 Marshall football players and the coaching staff; every November 14 at Marshall's Memorial Fountain the 75 names are read, and the water is turned off until spring.