What town is where the New River meets the Gauley River?

In Fayette County, West Virginia, at the confluence of the Gauley River and the New River, which forms the Kanawha, is a town called Gauley Bridge. The town is named after an actual bridge that was built in 1822 to carry the James River and Kanawha Turnpike over the Gauley River. Before this, the area was referred to as Kincaid’s ferry. The Kincaid family settled there in around 1812. Mr. Kincaid who ran the ferry was tried and convicted of arson when the covered bridge burned in 1826. This was a strategic point to control in the Civil War and the area, which was originally southern in sympathy, was taken and retaken three times between 1861 and 1862. The union forces would keep control until the end of the war. A wooden bridge over the Gauley was burned, rebuilt and burned again. The piers of the bridge are still standing! They’re visible from the modern bridge. One of the highest water falls in WV is in Gauley Bridge, at 60 feet. You gotta check out Cathedral Falls. Gauley bridge is also only a couple miles from Kanawha Falls, With several smaller cascades in between the two. Hawk’s nest overlook, which is the site of the Hawk’s nest disaster, isn’t far from Gauley Bridge and neither is the New River Gorge Bridge. Something that gets a lot of attention in the town is the bus on a rock. Somehow a bus ended up on a rock in the middle of the New River. The train station at Gauley Bridge, which was built in 1893 hasn't been in service in decades but now serves as an AirBnB for travlers to stay the night. You could also stay at the nearby historic Glenn Ferris Inn. A poem was written about Gauley Bridge by Thomas Dunn English entitled "Gauley Bridge". English was a friend of Edgar Allan Poe and the two became rivals. Gauley Bridge is a small town, the 2020 census revealed that there were 553 people residing in the town. Although the town wasn't incorporated until 1978, you can see that it has had a long history.
Photo sourced from wvexplorer.com Sources The war in words:union and confederate civil war camp newspapers in Charleston, west virginia, Jane Metters LaBarbara, March 14th, 2017, news.lib.wvu.edu Gauley Bridge, Lyle Blackwell, Feb. 8th, 2024, wvencyclopedia.org The town of Gauley Bridge, Mark Bollinger, nps.gov Little bits of history, March 17th, 2012 Gauley Bridge converts train station to unique lodging to promote tourism, JOSEPH DICRISTOFARO, April 27th, 2005, wchs.com Cathedral falls, wvtourism.com

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