Royal Gorge Bridge

[railiner]

I did visit Canon City some time ago, we tend to see what we expect to see, and I was confused for some hours about why the US had a Royal George bridge!

It is indeed a wonder...the original "bridge to nowhere"...

BTW...some trivia....the Royal Gorge Bridge is one of only three privately owned toll bridges in the USA. The other two are the Ambassador Bridge linking Detroit and Windsor, and the Dingman's Ferry Bridge across the Delaware between PA and NJ....

 

[George Harris]

I did visit Canon City some time ago, we tend to see what we expect to see, and I was confused for some hours about why the US had a Royal George bridge!
I missed seeing that bridge, but had an interesting drive up the Phantom Canyon trail, a former rail bed, to the old mining towns of Victor and Cripple Creek.

It is indeed a wonder...the original "bridge to nowhere"...

BTW...some trivia....the Royal Gorge Bridge is one of only three privately owned toll bridges in the USA. The other two are the Ambassador Bridge linking Detroit and Windsor, and the Dingman's Ferry Bridge across the Delaware between PA and NJ....

Off the subject of the bridge in India, but to explain a little about the Royal Gorge Bridge

The roadway bridge, that is the Royal Gorge Bridge itself is not quite a bridge to nowhere but close. It is a few miles west of Canon City CO on US50 to a road that ends at the park. The 1994 USGS 1:24,000 quadrange shows a road going from both ends and across the bridge but this road appears to no longer be open to through traffic according to the park web site. You can drive up to both ends but it is a LONG way around to get from one end to the other. It is a very simple wood deck roadway two lanes (narrow lanes!) wide. (Another piece of random information, in the 1920's the standard width of a highway lane was 9 feet. In the late 20's or sometime in the 30's that changed to 10 feet. Use of the current standard of 12 feet wide lanes began some time in the 1940's or early 50's.) We drove across it when I was in highschool, but that was 1961. From the royalgorgebridge.com web site "Construction started June 5, 1929 and was completed in less than 7 months. The Royal Gorge Bridge was built for people to take in the timeless beauty of this geological phenomena. The bridge is not and has never been part of a road or state highway system." It was built to be a tourist attraction based on its location over the canyon and that you can see the railroad and river along with the railroad's hanging bridge at the bottom of the canyon. At one time there was an incline to the bottom of the canyon from the park at the top, but that was destroyed by fire in 2013.

The original claim to fame in this area is the railroad hanging bridge in the bottom of the canyon. The original route of the Denver and Rio Grande railroad followed the Arkansas River, which is the river at the bottom of the canyon to ultimately cross the Rocky Mountains. It is a very unique structure, in that the canyon is so narrow at this particular location that there is not room for both the river and the railroad, so there is a short length where the railroad is on a bridge suspended above the river. It is a relatively short multispan through plate girder bridge with the canyon side girders on island piers. The river side girders are supported by cables from the apex of A frames based in the sides of the canyon, hence the hanging bridge. At one time the passenger trains through the canyon made a 10 minute stop at this location for people to look around.
The railroad hanging bridge info can be found at Royal Gorge - Hanging Bridge
Basic info from bridgehunter: built 1879, 175 feet long. See the web site for pictures and more info.