1978 | The Bridge over Royal Gorge
Near Cañon City, an old Colorado Gold Rush town, is a bridge to nowhere, built as a tourist attraction because the Royal Gorge was spectacularly there. It did lead to the record books as the highest bridge in the world, its deck 955 feet above the Arkansas River. By 2001, other bridges in the world overtook it, but this one still stands as the highest in the United States.
In 1878, the bottom of this tight gorge was only wide enough for a single track and a single railroad company. From opposite directions, the Santa Fe and the Denver & Rio Grande attacked the gorge, then each other in a serious physical confrontation. The D&RG won the legal battle in the Supreme Court, but the Santa Fe then muscled up and squeezed its own line through. A messy and fascinating history followed, and in 1880 things were somewhat smoothed by the so-called “Treaty of Boston.”
*Around this time, William Henry Jackson was making fine pictures along the line in the Royal Gorge, including views of the remarkable cantilevered railroad bridge at water level. You could look these up.