Nitro Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

World War I Memorial Bridge Opens To Traffic At Nitro

Justice led a caravan of cars west across the new span Friday, with all westbound traffic to be shifted to the bridge on Saturday.

Gov. Jim Justice and other state officials dedicated the new Interstate 64 bridge at Nitro Friday.

“Y’all didn’t cheer loud enough for that,” Justice said, announcing the official name of the Nitro World War I Memorial Bridge over the Kanawha River. “Now come on, one more time, really loud.”

It will replace the Donald M. Legg Memorial Bridge, which opened in 1963. After all traffic is shifted to the new bridge in the next couple of weeks, the old span will be dismantled and recycled. A new bridge will be constructed in its place to carry eastbound traffic only.

Justice led a caravan of cars west across the new span Friday, with all westbound traffic to be shifted to the bridge on Saturday.

The bridges are part of a $225 million project to widen I-64 to six lanes from four between Nitro and Scott Depot. The project is part of Justice’s Roads to Prosperity, now a five-year effort to upgrade the state’s highways.

New Bridge Connecting Nitro To St. Albans Set To Open

A new bridge connecting Nitro and St. Albans through Interstate 64 is opening Friday.

The Nitro World War I Memorial Bridge construction is part of a $224 million project widening Interstate 64 through the Route 35 interchange in Putnam County. The project widens nearly four miles of the interstate to six lanes of traffic, expanding to eight lanes at the Nitro and St. Albans interchanges.

It’s part of the state’s Roads to Prosperity infrastructure program, which recently celebrated its five year anniversary. Officials broke ground on construction for this particular project in April of last year.

It’s set to move exit traffic from St. Albans starting Friday, with westbound traffic following the next day. Eastbound traffic is also scheduled to be switched from the Donald M. Legg Memorial Bridge to the new bridge within the next two weeks.

The Donald M. Legg Memorial Bridge is also scheduled to be replaced, with the existing bridge scheduled to be demolished once eastbound traffic is fully switched.

A grand opening ceremony for the new bridge over the Kanawha River is set to be live streamed on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook Friday, Oct. 28 at 2:30 p.m.

As of when construction began in 2021, the entire I-64 widening project is slated to be completed in 2024.

First Charter Schools In W.Va. Begin Inaugural Fall Terms

These are the first schools that have opened since a 2019 state law allowed charter schools in the state.

West Virginia’s first four charter schools have opened their doors to students.

Three schools began their fall term Monday, including the brick-and-mortar Eastern Panhandle Preparatory Academy along with online schools West Virginia Virtual Academy and the Virtual Preparatory Academy of West Virginia. The Morgantown-based West Virginia Academy opened its doors on Aug. 2.

These are the first schools that have opened since a 2019 state law allowed charter schools in the state. A fifth school, Nitro Preparatory Academy, was also set to open this fall, but zoning-related delays have pushed back its opening date by one year.

The Kanawha County Circuit Court issued a preliminary injunction halting the creation of the state’s five charter schools in December of last year, but The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals issued a stay against the injunction in February, laying the groundwork for each school to remain in session starting this month.

“This state is no different than any other when it comes to charter school law. It takes a minute or two for the legislation to come into place,” said Sharon Williams, superintendent of Eastern Panhandle Preparatory Academy. “And I’ve been in charter schools for over 20 years. And so I get it.”

James Paul, the executive director of the West Virginia Professional Charter School Board, says the schools promote individual choice in education, while those opposed to charter school programs say they undermine public education by removing funding from local systems.

“We’re excited that there’s increased educational options, and more opportunities for families to find schools that are going to provide great opportunities for kids,” Paul said.

Around 1,100 students are projected to be attending the schools statewide, with official attendance data set to be released in early October.

All 5 W.Va. Public Charter Schools On Track To Open In Fall 2022

All five of West Virginia’s public charter schools are on track to open in fall 2022, despite a location issue for one of the brick-and-mortar schools. Nitro Preparatory Academy, one of the state’s three physical charter schools, hit a snag recently and is searching for a new building in Kanawha County.

All five of West Virginia’s public charter schools are on track to open in fall 2022, despite a location issue for one of the brick-and-mortar schools.

Nitro Preparatory Academy, one of the state’s three physical charter schools, hit a snag recently and is searching for a new building in Kanawha County.

“Our plans to locate Nitro Preparatory Academy at 302 21st Street [in Nitro] have changed due to a zoning challenge pertaining to the number of parking spaces available on-site,” Courtney Harritt, spokesperson for ACCEL Schools, said in an email. “At this time we are reviewing alternative locations in Nitro and throughout Kanawha County.”

Harritt said they hope to have a new building secured by mid-May.

ACCEL Schools is the education service provider for three of West Virginia’s five charter schools: Eastern Panhandle Preparatory Academy in Kearneysville, Nitro Prep and Virtual Preparatory Academy of West Virginia.

Harritt said interest has been strong at both Virtual Prep and Eastern Panhandle Prep with more than 100 applications at each school. Both schools will offer grades K-10.

Virtual Prep, along with another virtual school, West Virginia Virtual Academy, are the state’s two virtual charters.

West Virginia Virtual Academy will offer grades K-12, and its education service provider is a company called Stride.

Another brick-and-mortar charter school, West Virginia Academy, will be located in Morgantown and offer K-9. Its founder, John Treu, said in an email that the school will open in August.

“Our opening day is in early August because we have a modified term schedule with longer breaks between terms than traditional public schools,” Treu said. “We’ve hired most of our faculty and staff and over 400 students have applied and been admitted.”

Treu said the school has reached about 80 percent of total capacity with a couple grades nearly full. He said the majority of students are coming from Monongalia and Preston counties, with a few students enrolled from Marion County.

In related news, the West Virginia Professional Charter School Board met Friday. Prior to the meeting, Chairman Adam Kissel told West Virginia Public Broadcasting in an email that the board would have an “executive director discussion.”

However, this issue wasn’t brought up in the meeting. The board entered executive session for a “personnel matter” and then promptly adjourned.

The board has been searching for an executive director for some time. In October, the board had received at least six applications.

November 11, 1918: World War I Ends

On November 11, 1918, World War I ended after more than four years of brutal fighting. Nearly 39 million soldiers had been killed, wounded, or listed as missing. American soldiers arrived on the scene only during the last year-and-a-half of the war. Still, some 116,000 died in the conflict.

About 58,000 West Virginians served in the war. Of these, more than 1,100 were killed in action, and nearly 700 died in training. Many others died from influenza or other diseases.

On the home front, patriotic West Virginians rationed food and coal, volunteered as Red Cross personnel, and sold Liberty Bonds. In addition, the U.S. government built an ordnance center at South Charleston and a gunpowder plant at Nitro. Neither facility, however, was completed before the war ended.

Of the more than two million Americans who served in World War I, the last-surviving veteran was Frank Buckles, who died at Charles Town in 2011 at the age of 110. Today, memorials to the war can be seen in Welch, Kimball, Logan, Martinsburg, Huntington, and Charleston, with individual statues and plaques in many other towns.

What’s in a Name: The Definition of a ‘Boom’ Town

There’s a town in Kanawha County, West Virginia where some locals say living there is a “blast.”

As part of our occasional series, “What’s in a Name,” we take a look at the history and folklore of the names of Appalachian places. The town in question, Nitro, West Virginia, grew out of the explosives industry and was home to a factory that helped supply the U.S. Army with gun powder during World War I. Ken Thompson volunteers at the World War I museum in the city of Nitro.

According to Thompson, Nitro was established in 1917 by the federal government to manufacture nitrocellulose, a highly flammable compound formed by bringing cellulose from trees or plants into contact with it to nitric acid. It is also known as “guncotton,” because of its explosive characteristics.

“It was to support the war effort for WWI,” he explained. “A lot of people were under the impression it was nitroglycerin. It was not. It was nitrocellulose. That was added to the other components to make the gunpowder smokeless.”

Area S Bungalow Section. August 19, 1918.

It took the federal government about 11 months to build the town from 1917 to 1918, and approximately 100,000 people representing 41 nations participated.

Nitro’s construction coincided with one of the coldest winters in recorded history, Thompson said.

One of the town’s builders would go on to become famous: Clark Gable.

“His dad told him ‘son go get a job,'” Thompson said. “Well, he was one of those 100,000 came through Nitro. He worked as an electrician helping to build some of the Nitro bungalows.”

You can learn more about the town and the former manufacturing facilities there — as well as see artifacts from WWI on display at the museum.