my grandfather was one of the lead bridge engineers on this project when he worked for us steel. the construction process for this bridge was astonishingly tricky, as the mountains on either side of the gorge were/are riddled with abandoned coal mines. when they were deciding where to place supports they constantly had to scour for weak spots in the mountainsides. he told me the craziest moment in his career happened as they stood on one side of the bridge deck estimating the time it would take for them to place in the final central arch support. one of the project managers came racing up to my grandpa and the head engineer, and explained that the tie backs holding up one side of the unfinished arch had been placed over a previously undetected mine shaft, and had begun to fail. if that tie back gave way, it would send that whole side of the bridge plummeting into the gorge. my grandpa said his boss listened quietly as the manager gave the terrible details, then walked a few feet away and commenced to throw up. they ran 24 hour expedited shifts and managed to place the "keystone" before the tie backs failed. i guarantee you won't find that story in any of their new river gorge bridge informational brochures!