CROSSING THE CONTINENTAL “DIVIDE” ON THE “MOFFATT” ROAD
The train has climbed from the track at the bottom of the picture to the top of the cliff.
Though the ascent and descent of the passes are impressive, they are equalled in their daring by the winding through the rugged canyons bathed in everlasting shadows cast by the mountains. The Royal Gorge is only one out of five that are threaded. The others are equally awe-inspiring, but each has a totally different aspect. There is Animas canyon. The name of the gorge is musical—“Rio de las animas perdidas,” and trips readily off the tongue, but the Spaniards were adept in christening Nature’s wonders. “The River of Lost Souls” is melancholy, but how strikingly suitable! The whole bed of the canyon is occupied by the river. There was no convenient shelf by the water’s side to carry the track. The walls rise vertically on either side, and the foam of the water as it tumbles through the gulch is scattered high on either wall. The engineer, deprived of a natural pathway, cut one for himself. And it does not cling to the river’s side. It is high up on one wall, and was blasted foot by foot out of the solid rock. At one point it is 1000 feet above the water, and the grade is necessarily steep as the river-bed rises very abruptly towards its upper end, where the line emerges but a few feet above the water.
Photo, C. L. McClure, Denver]
THE MOFFATT RAILWAY PLAYING “HIDE-AND-SEEK” AMONG THE TUNNELS IN GORE CANYON
When the pioneer engineers laid this remarkable railway the exigencies of the present were their sole concern. As years rolled by the narrow gauge proved a handicap, so it was converted to the 4 feet 8½ inches gauge. But as there was still a considerable amount of narrow-gauge traffic, the line is adapted for both classes of working, there being three rails laid, so that it is as easily available for the narrow- as the standard-gauge vehicles. Then the necessity arose for doubling the track to give an up-and-down main line through Eagle River canyon. The surveys soon convinced the engineer that it was absolutely impracticable to parallel the original line, as the earthworks along the tortuous river could not be widened to carry the second pair of metals. Consequently, they had to be laid on the opposite side of the water, at a cost of £20,000, or $100,000, per mile for 5 miles. The result is that now the river has a canal appearance, its limits being bounded on either side by solid masonry.
A few years ago a well-known banker and prominent citizen of the city of Denver, the late David H. M. Moffatt, the Silver King, created a sensation by suggesting that the time was opportune to give the important trade centre in which he resided more direct communication with the Pacific coast. He pointed out that before setting directly westwards, one had either to travel 107 miles to the north to join the Union Pacific, or 110 miles south-east to Pueblo. Why should not this mileage be saved and the journey accelerated by following the bird’s course towards Salt Lake City?
Notwithstanding the severely broken character of the Rockies, he decided to drive his railway almost in an air-line. The surveyors pointed out that approximately 75 per cent. of the track could be laid along river banks threading the mountains where grades and curves could be kept tolerably easy. The greatest and costliest features of the scheme was the double toil over the Great Divide.