Key Bridge | Washington, DC

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Last weekend my friend and I jumped from the Key Bridge in Washington DC. A lot of people told us we were crazy and it couldn’t be done, pointing to the stories and articles of attempted (and some successful) suicides off the bridge. The problem was we couldn’t find accurate height data anywhere. We ended up using some old fashioned real-world geometry and similar triangles to estimate the height at 85 feet from the walkway, 90 feet from the top of the railing. We had two cameramen / women film our jump, which we did in burger king hats. Jumping was great; leaping off the railing was a huge rush I hit the water in good form. Since the area is very active we had to have a spotter below to tell us when we were clear to jump. After surfacing, we swam the short distance to the canoe rental dock next to our landing zone. The looks of shock and awe of 30+ onlookers was a great site. As I got to the dock and started to pull myself out, I looked up too see a hulk of a guy extending an arm to help me. He was probably 6’6”, 250, and had “USMC” jaggedly carved into his chest, obviously self inflicted. As the rest of the place continues to look on in awe, this guy says, “That was awesome man. Legends never die man. Legends never die.” Undoubtedly the coolest part of the whole experience. After running off before the cops showed up, I learned my fellow jumper landed a little lopsided, so he did a brief stint in the ER, but he’s fine now. All in all a great experience. The Key Bridge connects the GW parkway in Rosslyn VA to M St. NW (in Georgetown), Washington DC. It crosses the Potomac River. You can’t miss it.