Name/Title
StereographEntry/Object ID
2023.055.3.0223Description
A black and white stereograph. Image is of a train passing through a canyon, a river is to the right of the train. Above the image "T151 (Star)" is printed, below the image "8002T In the Royal Gorge (E.), Grand Canyon of the Arkansas, near Canyon City, Colo." is printed, to the left of the image "Keystone View Company COPYRIGHTED Manufacturers MADE IN U.S.A. Publishers" is printed, to the right of the image "Meadville, Pa., New York, N. Y., Chicago, Ill., London, England." is printed. On the reverse the following is printed:
8002
ROYAL GORGE, ARKANSAS RIVER, NEAR CANYON CITY, COLO.
This railroad track belongs to the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad. Pike's Peak is 30 miles away, to the northeast; Leadville, th scene of great excitement over gold in the sixties, and over silver and lead in later years, is 80 miles distant, to the northwest. This deep gorge is a mile and a half long and the canyon extends for eleven miles throught the heart of the Rockies, picturesque enough all the way to be famous, if it were not that this specially narrow pass so far excels all the rest in grandeur.
Almost half a mile those mountain walls tower over our heads, and here the chasm is actually little more than 30 feet wide. It is one (unreadable) the unbelievabley vast things, whose proportions we cannont at first take in. We have to look and look and look again to realize on what an enormous scale the cliffs are built.
There is a tradition that Spanish missionaries knew this gloomy defile as far back as 1642, but probably no other white man had ever explored it until 1870. In order to make a place for the railroad bed, laborers were suspended from a great height overhead and gradually worked down, removing enough rock to ensure security against accidents. There are several places where the cliffs overhang the track, but none where there is any danger of rock avalanches. Some of the debris seved to construct the road bed and the rest had to go into the Arkansas River, narrowing still more its close limits. Just ahead of us here that bridge is held by trusses embedded int eh living rock.
The first railroad train passed through here in 1879.
Copyright by The Keystone View Company.Collection
Photograph Collection