STRANGE ROCK FORMATIONS—NATURAL BRIDGES

Almost any unusual form in nature is apt to attract the eye and interest the beholder; and when such natural objects resemble artificial ones or bear a fanciful resemblance to animals the similarity intensifies the interest and almost always leads one to apply fanciful names to them. In wandering along a rocky shore one instinctively searches for the curious formations carved out by the unceasing action of the waves; and in journeying through rugged sections of mountain country each unusual rock formation rivets the attention at once.

Caves especially have a peculiar attraction of awe and curiosity combined. Such natural objects as Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, Luray Cave in Virginia, Calaveras Cave in California, the Garden of the Gods in Colorado, the Giant's Causeway on the north coast of Ireland, and Fingal's Cave on the island of Staffa are visited annually by many thousands of people. And no wonder that all mankind, from the savage to the most civilized, is charmed with natural arches spanning great chasms. No cyclopædia of natural wonders fails to give at least a brief description of the Natural Bridge of Virginia which spans a small stream that flows into the James River. So great a wonder was the structure regarded to be even in colonial times that it then claimed marked attention. Thomas Jefferson became so much interested in this natural wonder that he applied to George III for a reservation of land that should include the bridge, and in 1774 his request was granted. To accommodate distinguished strangers who might visit the bridge, Jefferson built near by a log cabin of two rooms. Concerning it he said: "The bridge will draw the attention of the world."

The Devil's Slide, Weber Canyon, Utah
[LINK TO IMAGE]

Chief-Justice Marshall described it as "God's greatest miracle in stone." And Henry Clay said it was "the bridge not made with hands, that spans a river, carries a highway, and makes two mountains one." On the rocky abutments are found carved the names of many persons. Among them is that of Washington. In his youth, laboriously cutting places for his hands and feet, he climbed up the face of one of the steep abutments and cut his name above all others, where for seventy years it stood unsurpassed in height. In 1818 a daring college student climbed from the foot to the top of the rock, thus outranking all others.

The Natural Bridge is composed of blue limestone; it is two hundred and fifteen feet high, ninety feet wide, and spans a chasm eighty-five feet across. A public highway lined with trees passes over the top. The bridge itself is all that remains of the roof of what once was a limestone cavern.

The southeastern part of Utah is overlaid with strata of red and yellow sandstone hundreds of feet deep. Ages ago this whole region was elevated and thereby was distorted by the internal forces which pushed it upward. Subsequently wonderful transformations were wrought. The flowing streams gradually bored through portions of the soft, uplifted sandstone, forming arches and digging deep canyons, while the air and rain rounded off the rugged parts into graceful shapes.

Wonderful as is the famous Natural Bridge of Virginia, the natural bridges of Utah are still more wonderful. In White Canyon of southeastern Utah are Edwin, Carolyn, and Augusta Bridges—magnificent structures of pink sandstone carved in lines of classic symmetry and possessing gigantic proportions. At least half a dozen natural bridges in Utah surpass that of Virginia, not only in beauty and grandeur, but also in dimensions. They were discovered by cattlemen in 1895, but they did not become known to the outside world until 1909, when the region was explored by the Utah Archæological Expedition.