Bridge Day Adds Fingerprint Requirement for Participants

Rappellers, BASE jumpers and vendors participating in future Bridge Day events will have to undergo fingerprint scans.

Bridge Day Commission chair Sharon Cruikshank tells The Charleston Gazette that the scans are less intrusive than routine background checks.

Fingerprints will be checked against a terrorism watch list. They won’t be saved.

So far, reaction to the decision has been mixed.

Cruikshank says rappellers and vendors don’t have any issues. But some in the BASE jumping community aren’t happy.

BASE jumpers from around the world flock to the New River Gorge Bridge on the third Saturday of every October for Bridge Day. BASE stands for building, antenna, span and Earth, the fixed objects from which jumpers leap.

Bridge Day organizers began requiring background checks after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.