"The car goes swinging along the precipitous flank of the rugged mountain and the line is marked by astonishing sinuosities, startling curves, bold headlines and sharp angled rock piles. The road appeared dangerous to the more nervous and timid, but, in fact, it is as safe as any railway line running on the level, for the road bed, track and bridges are built in a most thorough and substantial manner, and were not made to 'fall down.'
GLIMPSES OF MOUNT LOWE RAILWAY.
Grand Circular Bridge at Upper Right Hand Corner.
"The picturesque route is through majestic forests, growing heavier and more luxuriant with the ascent, and the line penetrates deeper into the Sierra, where the snowfall of winter furnishes increased moisture, and the shade of the close set trees shields the ground and gives the fertile soil a chance to feed the abundant tree and plant life of this high altitude.
"The whole journey is alluring and picturesque, not to say thrilling. On one side of the road rises the towering uplift of the bulky mountain, its slopes bright in verdure and covered with heavy timber, masses of displaced rock and fallen trees. On the other sink immeasurable canyons, filled with a dense forest growth, thickets of chapparal and beds of luxuriant ferns.
"Far away, seaward, spreads the eye-filling panorama of the lower levels. Foothill slopes, big and little valleys, spreading plains, deep-cut arroyos, clearly defined watercourses, cultivated fields and gardens, sweet cottages and opulent homes—all are clear to the vision of the beholder from this summit height. Pasadena, Los Angeles and their environs are seen; the blue and restless ocean lies beyond, its ceaseless breakers ever lashing its unyielding shore into whitest foam.
"The delighted travelers brought up at the Alpine Tavern, not merely because it is a hostelry affording 'entertainment for man and beast,' but because the railway line runs, as yet, no further than that point. The hotel, built at the point known as Mount Lowe Springs, is constructed something after the style of a Swiss chalet, and is as attractive as it is unique. It is set into the very ribs of the mountain, being built to suit the location rather than after any stereotyped plan of the average modern architect, who would ruthlessly fell the finest forests—God's first temples—for the sake of building a wall 'just so.'
