DENVER & RIO GRANDE WESTERN ROUTE. 17 
At Gorge the Canon City pipe line crosses the river. In rounding 
the next point on the right the traveler may see above him one of 
the most massive walls in the canyon. It is probably 1,200 feet high 
and is nearly smooth as far as one can see. After passing around this 
projecting mass into the next bend the traveler on looking ahead may 
see people on the crest of the wall, for the automobile road from 
Canon City leads to this point. The wall upon which they stand is 
about 1,100 feet > above the railroad, but the rock is so massive that 
it is difficult to appreciate its aibal height. At milepost 166 the 
traveler is directly below the point reached by the automobile road, 
and he may obtain some idea of the immensity of the gorge, but the 
view from the bottom, though interesting, does not compare in 
grandeur with the view to be obtained Poin above. One is more 
accustomed to looking up at great heights than to looking down into 
great chasms, and the canyon is therefore less striking when seen 
from below than from above. 
The train swings around the base of the overhanging walls of the 
point on the right and crosses the Hanging Bridge (Pl. XX XVIII) 
in the narrowest part of the gorge. In places here the walls actually 
overhang, but pictures of the gorge taken from this point have been 
so widely circulated that almost everyone, even before reaching Colo- 
rado, is familiar with them. The engineering feat of hanging a 
bridge from the walls of the canyon instead of supporting it by 
abutments is of course novel and attracts much attention, but few 
who pass over the road think of the engineers who made the first 
location for the road or of the workmen who hewed their way 
through the solid rock. It is reported that at some of the construc- 
tion camps men and tools and mules and carts were let down the 
canyon yall by ropes; that the engineers made their locations on 
the ice or while struggling through the icy waters; and that the 
rockmen were hung suspended in the air while they drilled the holes 
in the granite and fired the blasts that sent tons upon tons of rock 
__ erashing into the stream below. -If the experiences of these men 
~ could be written the story would abound in thrilling moments of 
suspense and hairbreadth escapes that would rival the scenes shown 
~ in the most realistic moving picture. 
* Many figures have been given for | cordingly, D. E. Winchester, of the j 
the depth of this canyon, but all ap- | United States Geological Survey, with — 4 
pear to be only guesses. The favorite | telescopic alidade and plane table, 
figure seems to have been 2,600 feet, or | measured the vertical distance from E 
approximately half a mile. The writer, | the base to the top of the cliff and * 
believing that the public is entitled to | found it to be approximately 1,100 feet. 
know the truth about such striking | This measurement may be in error as 
scenic features, requested that the | much as 4 feet but probably not more 
height of the cliff be determined. Ac- |} than that. 
