THE GREAT NATURAL BRIDGES OF UTAH 



By Byron Cummings, University of Utah 



WE used to be much interested 

 in the descriptions and ilhistra- 

 tions in our readers and geog- 

 raphies of the Natural Bridge of Mrginia. 

 People travel from all parts of the world 

 to behold this strange natural phenome- 

 non and enjoy the picturesque scenery of 

 the Appalachian Mountains, and feel well 

 paid for their effort. But Utah is the 

 home of really great natural bridges. 

 She astonishes us with not merely one 

 but half a dozen, any one of which sur- 

 passes the Mrginia structure in grandeur 

 and beauty. The three remarkable 

 bridges — the Edwin, the Carolyn, and 

 the Augusta — which were discovered in 

 Utah several years ago and described in 

 this Magazine,* are now eclipsed by 

 another more marvelous structure in the 

 same State. 



Overlying the southeastern part of 

 Utah are the "red beds" — strata of red 

 and yellow sandstone hundreds of feet 

 thick. For the most part this formation 

 rests in a horizontal position ; but in 

 places sections lie tipped at an angle of 

 45 degrees and more, and great faults 

 have occurred. Ages ago this entire re- 

 gion was pushed upward until it checked 

 and cracked in zigzag lines away from 

 the mountains that were formed by the 

 material from beneath being forced up- 

 ward through the superincumbent sand- 

 stone. Thus came into being the Ea 

 Sals, the Abahos, the Bears Ears, Navajo 

 Mountain, and the many deep canyons 

 radiating from them. 



This process of elevation was a gradual 

 one, and, as the waters from the moun- 

 tains sought a lower level, they took their 

 courses through these irregular cracks 

 and seams, searching for the ocean, 

 which was then not far away. Their 

 rushing currents and surging eddies wore 

 off the sharp corners, sought out the soft 

 places in the yielding sandstone, digging 

 * See National Geographic Magazine, vol. 

 XV, p. 368, and vol. xviii, p. I99- 



out deep caverns and recesses in the 

 cliff's, and left behind them a series of 

 graceful curves and fantastic forms that 

 amaze and delight the traveler at every 

 turn. As the formation was pushed 

 upward from time to time, these rushing 

 torrents kept on with their work of 

 smoothing, cutting, and filling until they 

 have produced the deep box canyons so 

 prevalent in this section. Sometimes 

 they widen out into small valleys of rich 

 alluvial deposits and again narrow down 

 to a mere slit between huge masses of 

 cliffs. 



This elevation and opening of the for- 

 mation often left a narrow point of the 

 cliff' extending outward for rods around 

 which the stream had to make its way as 

 it rushed onward in its course. The con- 

 stant surging of the waters against this 

 barrier often found a soft place in the 

 sandstone, where it helped to eat out a 

 half-dome-shaped cave. In a few in- 

 stances, as the waters swirled around the 

 other side of this barrier, they found a 

 similarly soft place opposite the former 

 and ground out a similar half dome on 

 that side. When in the course of time 

 the backs of these two semicircular caves 

 came together, the waters found a shorter 

 course through that opening and quickly 

 enlarged the archway and smoothed off 

 and rounded into graceful curves the 

 sides of the massive buttresses. Thus a 

 bridge was formed and became a mighty 

 span of enduring rock whose foundations 

 and graceful superstructure were laid by 

 the ages. 



THE EDWIN BRIDGE 



West of the Bears Ears in White 

 Canyon and its tributary, the Armstrong, 

 are three large bridges that have thus 

 been carved out of the sandstone by the 

 forces of nature. A short distance off 

 from the old "Mormon trail" to Dandy 

 crossing, on the Colorado, in Armstrong 

 Canyon, is found the Edwin or Little 



