Perrine Bridge

The first bridge here charged a toll. A private company opened a steel cantilever across the Snake River Canyon in September 1927 and collected a fare until the state bought it in 1940 and let traffic cross free. By the 1970s it could not carry modern loads, and in May 1973 work began on a replacement just to the east. The new truss arch opened in July 1976, 1,500 feet long with a main span of 993 feet, and the old cantilever was taken down.

The deck of the Perrine Bridge stands 486 feet above the river, and that height draws people from other continents. It is about the only man-made structure in the United States where BASE jumping is allowed year-round without a permit. Three Twin Falls men, former Army paratroopers, made the first recorded jumps in 1987 on surplus military parachutes, after trying the drop first with a 55-gallon drum. Parachuting and bungee jumping from the bridge were still illegal in the early 1990s, and a bungee jumper went to jail for it in 1991; by the end of that decade the law had given way. Eleven jumpers had died here by early 2025.

On a calm morning jumpers step off the rail, open their canopies below the deck and drift down to the river, then climb back out of the canyon to go again. The bridge carries pedestrian walkways, so everyone else can look down the same drop.

The Twin Falls Visitor Center at the south end serves both crowds, with parking, a statue of I. B. Perrine and the Canyon Rim Trail, which passes under the bridge. Walk it east and the dirt ramp of 1974 comes into view on the same south rim, about a mile and a half away.