Nine hundred feet below, New River flows north, an unusual course in the American East where rivers generally do not flow north. Its name and age are also unusual: no one knows the origin of the name, though some say explorers found a river that was new to them, while geologists know it is one of North America’s oldest rivers, even older than the ancient Appalachian Mountains through which it flows. New River also has incised meanders, great bends cut deeply into the earth, a form unusual in eastern North America where meandering rivers are normally broad and flat. Here, the river slices through ten million years of rock layers, and as it flows through New River Gorge National River it shows the many bends and meanders that are unusual for a deep-canyon river in eastern North America.