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| WEST VIRGINIA ACHIEVEMENTS |
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West Virginia – with a population of 1.8 million people – is the only state to be designated by presidential proclamation. (June 20, 1863)
West Virginia’s Memorial Tunnel was the first in the nation to be monitored by television. It opened Nov. 8, 1954.
The first electric railroad in the world built as a commercial enterprise was constructed between Huntington and Guyandotte.
James Rumsey launched the first steamboat in the Potomac River at New Mecklenburg (Shepherdstown) on Dec. 3, 1787.
The New River Gorge Bridge is the world’s longest steel arch bridge at 1,700 feet.
The world’s first brick street was laid in Charleston on Oct. 23, 1870, on Summers Street, between Kanawha and Virginia streets.
West Virginia is the nation’s No. 1 exporter of coal.
The Polymer Alliance Zone is the world’s largest concentration of engineering polymer plants.
The Kingsford Manufacturing Co.’s 50-acre complex in Parsons, W.Va., is the largest charcoal plant in the world.
Bruce Hardwood Floors in Beverly, W.Va., has the world’s largest hardwood flooring plant.
West Virginia University offers the world's first bachelor’s degree in forensic identification and biometrics.
During the Cold War, a sprawling 112,000-square-foot bomb shelter was built to house members of Congress in the event
of a nuclear attack. It’s located beneath the famous Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va.
At the end of the Guilded Age in the late 1890s, the town of Bramwell, W.Va., had more millionaires per square mile than any other
city in the U.S. Many of their mansions have been restored and can be visited by the public.
A variety of the yellow apple, the Golden Delicious, originated in Clay County. The original Grimes Golden Apple Tree was discovered
in 1775 near Wellsburg.
Mother’s Day was first observed at Andrews Church in Grafton on May 10, 1908.
The first spa open to the public was at Berkeley Springs, West Virginia, in 1756 (then Bath, Virginia). Berkeley Springs has more massage
therapists than lawyers and is the only place in the U.S. to boast: “George Washington bathed here.”
The first free school for African Americans in the entire south opened in Parkersburg in 1862.
Mrs. Minnie Buckingham Harper, a member of the West Virginia House of Delegates by appointment in 1928, was the first African-American
woman to become a member of a legislative body in the United States.
To form a separate state, West Virginia had to pay “a just proportion of the public debt of the Commonwealth of Virginia.” In 1915, the U.S.
Supreme Court ruled that West Virginia owed $12.4 million and a check was delivered in 1919. Bonds paid off the remainder by 1939.
Some famous West Virginians include:
Booker T. Washington: Black educational leader and first president of Tuskegee Institute
Brigadier General Charles Yeager: First person to fly faster than the speed of sound
Carter G. Woodson: Educator, author and the father of Black History Month
Cyrus R. Vance: Secretary of State from 1977 to 1980 during the Carter administration
Pearl S. Buck: Pulitzer and Nobel prize winning author
Kathy Mattea: Grammy Award-winning singer
Herschel “Woody” Williams: Medal of Honor winner; only surviving of 12 West Virginia recipients
Mary Lou Retton: Gold medal winner in gymnastics, 1984 Olympics
Sam Snead: Winner of 81 PGA tournaments, more than any other golfer
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