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After many years of thought. I've decided to post on this Board about what really happened at Bridge Day 1989. First i'll let other's share.
Thank You,
Gerald Harendza BASE#75
1989 NRGB #1

so what happened ??

i hope it's nothing bad. Can we make it a happy story?

So,
It looks like you got it all started. How is your ankle? I would assume that you were the first one to go off that year. It sounds like bridge day has come a long way since then. The whole days sounds like a big mess. As JK would put it.... " I have seen monkey shit fights at the zoo more organized than that" The funny thing about that whole day is that it seems that not one of us, but a ranger turned out to be our best friend that day.

Congrats on getting the ball rolling though. There was an artical on this bridge day in the spring 1990 issue of the Base Gazette if any one has it lying around.

Come on man ....Spit it OUT
No sense in dragging out the Drama. on what happened in 1989, over 15 years ago.
Please feel free to elaborate on your statement. at your own convenience.
.

No doubt! Lets hear it. I would like to hear more on the subject. I would also like to see if you have more to add to the artical that I have read.

Sounds like crappy weather and high water ended bridge day. Permits didn't come through. I believe this was the first year that NPS had aquired the land under the bridge. So there was a second plan to move the exit over the rail way. The owners of the rail road were not having it. They were lieniant in previous years because there was only a few landings here and there on the tracks. How ever they don't want everyone landing there. So the let the BD staff know that they will have rail police down there to ticket anyone landing on the tracks. There was some other stuff going on but in the end Jean decided to call off jumping. So early the next morning the bridge was open to foot traffic. Every now and again a bandit jumper would step to the edge and bail. Then try to excape once they had landed. Sounds like many jumpers got away. Others ended up with tickets. One had his gear taken. It sounds to me like this Bandit jumping started with none other than our Mr. gharendza wearing a ski mask. By the end of the day one of the rangers Bill Blake had decided that the current in the river had slowed enough to issue the permit. He got a hold of Jean, who apparently never even came out to the bridge all day. He told her that the nps was ready to issue the permit with her blessing. She would not give it. So the permit was never valid. Blake went ahead with out Jeans permission and told the jumpers where they could land without getting into trouble with the nps. If they made a conscience effort to land out of nps property and ended up there on accident they would not get into trouble. Well Blake had kept his word and a few jumpers that did land on nps land did end up getting help from rangers with collecting there gear and sending them on their way.

I know there is much more to the story but this is a short overview to what happened. Some of what I have here may not be entirely true. I read the artical last night and these are some of the key points I got.

No doubt! Lets hear it. I would like to hear more on the subject. I would also like to see if you have more to add to the artical that I have read.

Sounds like crappy weather and high water ended bridge day. Permits didn't come through. I believe this was the first year that NPS had aquired the land under the bridge. So there was a second plan to move the exit over the rail way. The owners of the rail road were not having it. They were lieniant in previous years because there was only a few landings here and there on the tracks. How ever they don't want everyone landing there. So the let the BD staff know that they will have rail police down there to ticket anyone landing on the tracks.
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Actually the permits did come through - Jean made the decision not to jump and gave the permit back to NPS,,,

NPS always owned the landing area as far as I know - at least they did in '84 and again in '86 when a buddy and I jumped off the Winnebago going home...

Railway police were also a constant threat every year - it's just that they would usually get tired and end up taking off by noon or so, but if you did land there there was always the chance you'd get a ticket and lose your gear....

The biggest mess came when Jean admitted to the jumpers that she was giving the permit back and then started hedging on giving refunds, citing money that had already been spent on travel, transport, etc. etc....

Some of the posts have much of the truth but I remember you there when you said we were spinning donuts. I've always liked that saying, but but as you know I was on staff with my brother Randy, Nick, Jean, Smitty and several others. Weather was bad and river way above flood stage into the trees. The deciding factor that the staff all voted on, was when John Dragon told us he could not use his boats to save anyone in that river and refused to contract with us. Therefore, no boats and nearly half of the registered jumpers had very few to no BASE jumps and many had low skydives. Yes the NPS trusted us to make the decision and we gave back the permit. The way jumping started had nothing to do with the river going down since there were still no boats. Myself and Earl Redfern were on top, when Bill Blake, the Chief Ranger came to me and said if some of your guys feel they can hit the road that weaves down to the river, they won't be busted since the NPS did not yet have jurisdiction over the roads. He also told us that to violate NPS rules, you had to intend to land on their land and if a good faith attempt to land on the road missed, they would understand and no ticket. The RR cops had always turned a head, but when they realized they may be the prime landing area, they balked understandably. About 40 jumpers made it and no one was seriously hurt, but some of the landings were great to watch. I watched them at the bottom with Bill Blake and he was actually quite impressed with the skill of navigating between the trees to hit that windy little road. All in all, if you had seen the river conditions with no boats and all the new BASE jumpers, you all would have understood why we gave bach the permit. At least a few of the hard corps experienced jumpers did make it and did a great job under very difficult conditions on landing. By the way, the NPS did not always own the bottom. In about 84 they condemned Dragon and ultimately settled out of court to get the land at the bottom and hence, B Day. Glad we always had the Chamber and the citizens on our side so they didn't have the muscle to stop it.
Rick Harrison
Director USBA
BASE 38