DENVER & RIO GRANDE WESTERN ROUTE. 



77 



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 great 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 from 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 (PI. XXXVIII) 

 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 

 througli 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 wall 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 

 crashing 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 figrures have been given for 

 the depth of this canyon, but all ap- 

 pear to be only guesses. The favorite 

 figure seems to have been 2,600 feet, or 

 approximately half a mile. The writer, 

 believing that the public is entitled to 

 know the truth about such striking 

 scenic features, requested that the 

 height of the cliff be determined. Ac- 



cordingly, D. E. Winchester, of the 

 United States Geological Survey, with 

 telescopic alidade and plane table, 

 measured the vertical distance from 

 the base to the top of the cliff and 

 found it to be approximately 1,100 feet. 

 This measurement may be in error as 

 much as 4 feet but probably not more 

 than that. 



