A 60-year-old man died Friday afternoon, September 25, 2026, after jumping from the historic bridge spanning Ausable Chasm in the Town of Chesterfield, according to New York State Police. Troopers responded to the scene at approximately 1:55 p.m. after receiving a report of a body in the water below the span, and located the victim in the gorge shortly after arriving.
According to Newport Dispatch, surveillance footage reviewed by investigators captured the man jumping from the bridge and showed no other individuals in the immediate area at the time. State police said the footage revealed no apparent indications of foul play, and the same report notes that New York State Forest Rangers and local fire departments carried out the recovery of the body from the water below.
The bridge involved carries U.S. Route 9 over the Ausable River gorge and is a 526-foot steel arch structure built in 1933, with an overall height of 70 feet and a span height of 45 feet, according to Wikipedia, which notes the span was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999. The gorge itself, often called the “Grand Canyon of the Adirondacks,” is a two-mile sandstone chasm with vertical walls reaching up to 175 feet, according to ADK Taste, which describes the formation as carved from 500 million-year-old sandstone bedrock.
Recovery Efforts in Ausable Chasm
The body was recovered from the gorge. In March 2023, New York State Forest Rangers performed a technical rope recovery in Ausable Chasm after a different victim's body was thrown more than 100 feet down into the gorge in an unrelated case, per the New York Almanack. Forest Rangers with the state Department of Environmental Conservation are trained specifically in swift-water rescue and high-angle rope extractions for wilderness recoveries across the state, the outlet notes.
The recovery involved New York State Police, Forest Rangers, and local fire departments.
Coroner Pronounced Man Deceased at the Scene
The Essex County Coroner responded to the scene and pronounced the male victim deceased.
The incident occurred in the Town of Chesterfield. The victim was identified as Kenneth Darrah.
Anyone experiencing a mental health crisis or thoughts of suicide can reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by call or text, available 24/7. Dedicated New York contact centers for 988 have answered more than 1.4 million calls and 280,000 chats and texts since the short code launched, according to the New York State Office of Mental Health.
