The Mile High Swinging Bridge on Grandfather Mountain
Near Banner Elk, North Carolina
Ahead rises Grandfather Mountain and its most famous feature, the Mile High Swinging Bridge. When Hugh Morton inherited the mountain in nineteen fifty-two, building this bridge was one of his very first projects. The story goes that Morton was inspired by his maternal grandmother, whose limited mobility kept her from the long hikes she had loved in her youth, and he wanted to give visitors those high views without the climb.
He envisioned a suspension footbridge two hundred twenty-eight feet long to span an eighty-foot chasm between a rock outcrop and Linville Peak. He hired Charles Hartmann Junior of Greensboro to draw the designs, and the bridge cost about fifteen thousand dollars. On September second, nineteen fifty-two, gubernatorial candidate William Umstead dedicated the span, and his daughter Merle became the first person to cross it.
Morton's grandmother, then ninety years old, was finally able to enjoy the high-altitude views she cherished. The bridge earns its name because it stands a mile above sea level, not a mile above the ground. It is celebrated as the highest suspension footbridge in America.
The current structure still uses the original steel beams raised in nineteen fifty-two, and each year roughly a quarter of a million people cross it to feel the wind and take in views that reach for a hundred miles.
