Sandstone Falls: The New River's Widest Drop

Just north of the community of Sandstone, the New River spreads wide and drops over a ledge of ancient sandstone. This is Sandstone Falls, one of the widest waterfalls in the eastern United States. The rock shelf that creates it formed roughly three hundred million years ago, when sand accumulated in shallow coastal waters; the softer shale beneath it eroded away over millennia, leaving the harder sandstone cantilevered above the river.

Early surveyors of a water route through the mountains, among them John Marshall, treated these falls as a serious obstacle on the New River. William Richmond, a Revolutionary War veteran, settled here in the late seventeen hundreds and ran a ferry and grist mill at the falls for generations. The falls are now part of New River Gorge National Park.