The Great Waldo Visits Wheeling

Submitted by David Bartens

The Great Waldo Visits Wheeling was the headline that ran in the Wheeling newspaper during the summer of early 1960's. Actually it ran every day for about a week and counted down the day until Waldo's arrival.


Waldo toured the country in the summertime, jumping off very high bridges into the rivers and bays below. I believe that Waldo's visit to Wheeling was part of our 4th of July celebration that year. It might have been during Wheeling’s Bi-Centennial or some other local "big deal" celebration. Waldo's famous jump was to be from Wheeling's Suspension Bridge.

Let me set the scene for Waldo's arrival. Wheeling at that time was a vibrant city and a fun place to go and be seen. We were an isolated community in those days. It took the interstate later in the 60's to eventually bring us in touch with the rest of the country. At this time the Fort Henry Bridge had only recently been constructed. I-70 and the Wheeling Tunnel projects were still in the planning stages. Out of state traffic was still very light around Wheeling. The old neighborhoods of East Wheeling, McColloch Street and Goosetown and all of 16th Street were still intact and full of working class families.

The Wharf was nothing like the beautiful waterside park that it is today, but it was the focal point of summertime festivities in Wheeling. There was no park and the view of the river was largely obstructed by that ugly old Wharf Parking Garage that was located on Water Street. I believe that the river at that time was accessible via a concrete boat launch. At any rate, the river area was accessible from Water Street and both bridges were clearly visible.

So here we are....thousands of people downtown and standing along the river bank for the arrival of the Great Waldo and his jump from the Suspension Bridge into the Ohio River. As I said before the Wheeling newspaper had hyped the event and this was to be the highlight of the afternoon's festivities. We knew he had arrived because of all the car traffic crossing the Suspension Bridge had been restricted and Waldo had an escort of police vehicles with their lights flashing in all their glory. There were also all those news vehicles with all their camera men reporting the great event. Wheeling dignitaries were also on hand, all walking with Waldo from the Wheeling side of the bridge to the center. The Great Waldo was easy to recognize from the Wharf area. He was wearing a very loud orange full body bathing suit. The tension in the crowd along the river was reaching a crescendo when the scheduled time for Waldo's jump started growing near. About 2 minutes before Waldo's jump, three teenagers dressed in cut-off blue jeans and white t-shirts left the Yacht Club, located on the Wheeling Island side of the Suspension Bridge and started walking across the bridge from the Wheeling Island side. When they got to within 25 or 30 feet of Waldo and his entourage, the three boys unceremoniously got up on the bridge rail and one by one dove off the bridge one at a time. The first two jumped feet first but the third boy did a beautiful Johnny Weissmuller swan dive into the river. Everyone along the river stood up and were yelling and clapping for the daring feat of those Wheeling Island boys. I don't even recall if the Great Waldo jumped that day, if he did it would have been anticlimactic. That was the last we ever heard of the Great Waldo.