Gauley Bridge, West Virginia

The Town of Gauley Bridge, at left, straddles the mouth of the Gauley River. (Photo courtesy Steven Yates)

Gauley Bridge, West Virginia (WV), is an incorporated community at the mouth of the Gauley River in Fayette County. The town is named for a bridge that spanned the Gauley River, which joins the New River at Gauley Bridge to form the Kanawha River. Cathedral Falls, one of the most photographed waterfalls in West Virginia, is located at a roadside park on US-60 at Gauley Bridge.

Lodging near Gauley Bridge, West Virginia

Gauley Bridge (WV) Hotels

History

The first bridge at Gauley Bridge was built in 1821 by the James River & Kanawha Turnpike Company as part of its trans-Allegheny route between the Ohio River and the Atlantic seaboard. The Weston & Gauley Bridge Turnpike joined the James River route at Gauley Bridge in the 1840s, tying overland traffic in the Kanawha Valley with that of the Monongahela Valley in the north. James Hodge Miller was the first European to settle at Gauley Bridge in about 1831. During the Civil War, Union forces established a camp above the town on Conley Hill overlooking the strategic bridge across the mouth of the Gauley.

Location

Gauley Bridge is located on highway US-60 approximately 40 miles southeast of the state capital at Charleston, West Virginia, and 15 miles northwest of the Fayette County seat at Fayetteville, West Virginia.

Map of Gauley Bridge, West Virginia

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Regional Information

Gauley Bridge is located in the New River Gorge Region in south-central West Virginia near the eastern flank of the Metro Valley Region in western West Virginia.