Just Got My Birthday Present

[MountainMan]

Fantastic pics!! I never heard of the Hanging Bridge till now. Always nice to learn about new things - especially if they have to do with railroading

When the railroad was put through, they planned at first to blast that cliff face on the right of the picture to make a shelf for the tracks, but the gorge is so narrow there that the rubble would have blocked the river, causing a backup and a flood that would have ripped out miles of work. (Back then, there was no dam upstream to regulate the flow of water, which is fierce during spring run-offs.) Therefore, the decision was made to try hanging the bridge over the river on the framework you see. This is the original framework, and it's sill in use carry far heavier trains than anything the original builders envisioned.

If you hike the Gorge, you can still find remnants of the old stone forts erected by the warring railroads - the Sante Fe and the Union Pacific - in their battle over who would win the track rights to the canyon route.