ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Sunday, October 20, 1996               TAG: 9610210128
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL   PAGE: A-12 EDITION: METRO 
DATELINE: FAYETTEVILLE, W.VA.
SOURCE: VICKI SMITH ASSOCIATED PRESS

AT THE EDGE, `YOU KNOW YOU'RE DEAD'

IF YOU'VE GOT TO BE NUTS to jump off an 876-foot-high bridge, then there were lots of crazy people in Fayetteville, W.Va., on Saturday.

Chris Stokely walked the plank Saturday, 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.

``If I had a brain, I wouldn't be doing this,'' said Mike Murphy of Hickory, N.C., who jumped last year and returned Saturday dressed as the Scarecrow from ``The Wizard of Oz.''

His friend Tony Herring of Rock Hill, S.C., was dressed as the movie's Cowardly Lion. ``I'm looking for some courage big-time. I'm scared to death,'' he said.

It's the nation's second-highest bridge, behind Colorado's 1,053-foot Royal Gorge Bridge over the Arkansas River.

Bridge Day is the only time pedestrians and jumpers are allowed onto the 1,700-foot steel span carrying U.S. 19 across the gorge about 40 miles southeast of Charleston.

Jumpers climbed onto a flatbed trailer parked on the bridge, walked a 3-foot-wide plank to the railing and leaped into the tree-lined New River Gorge National River.

The majority of the jumpers who dare the annual plunge land on the shore, but most years some splash into the rocky river and others stray into trees, suffering cuts and even broken bones. On Saturday, five of the early jumpers were taken to a hospital with back and ankle injuries, rescue officials said.

``The ground comes right at you,'' said Eric Byrd of Huntington, who jumped successfully Saturday.

Three people have died during Bridge Day, the last in 1987.

``When you stand at the edge, you know you're dead. When you get to the bottom and open your eyes, it's like you're reborn,'' said Mike Masterov of Houston, who was taking part in his third Bridge Day.

``It doesn't get any scarier than this,'' said his girlfriend, Tina Femea of Houston, whom he met at the 1994 Bridge Day. ``It's something you spend your life not doing. You're not supposed to jump off things and fall.''

``When you jump, all your problems disappear, money problems, relationship problems, whatever, it doesn't matter,'' said Stormy Swarthout, 20, of Modesto, Calif., who has made more than 100 regular sky dives but came here Saturday for her first bridge jump.

LENGTH: Medium:   64 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  AP. 1. Parachutist Avery Badenhop of California makes a 
          jump from the New River Gorge Bridge as part of the 17th annual 
          Bridge Day celebration Saturday. 2. One of nearly 400 parachutists 
          descends from the top of the bridge, where thousands of spectators 
          were on hand. Only on Bridge Day is the span open to pedestrians. 
          color.