Wednesday afternoon we drove out to the Royal Gorge Bridge. What an interesting place to visit. Several years ago they changed it into a park where one entry fee gets all of the features of the facility, the incline railroad, the tram and access to the bridge to walk across and see the animals on the other side or you can drive your vehicle across and see what is there.


It is quite a site to look down into the canyon and see the railroad tracks running along the river. In some areas you can see the old tracks on the other side that have deteriorated and some areas have collapsed. You can still ride a train through the gorge, for a fee, however it is not accessible, so we did not go. In some areas the railroad is under the rocks above and you can not see the railroad at all. I would have liked to have seen the train going through the gorge just one time.

Specifications: The Royal Gorge Bridge is the world's highest suspension bridge, 1,053 feet high. Begun June 5, 1929 and completed November 1929. Length: 1270 feet, width 18 feet, main span 880 feet, towers 150 feet high, 2,100 strands of #9 galvanized wire in each cable. Weight of cables 300 tons, 1,000 tons of steel in the floor of the bridge, 1,270 planks in deck, about 250 replaced annually. Original cost $350,000. Cost today over 15 million. Bridge will support in excess of two million pounds.



It is really an interesting piece of engineering the way the cables are anchored in the granite stone. IF you would like additional photos, just let me know and I can e-mail them to you.

On the other side of the bridge they have a lot of animals, we saw a herd of goats out on the road. They have Bison, Elk, Deer. They also have mule trips that you can take to the edge of the gorge along with a Campfire cookout. That should be interesting if you are interested in riding a mule.

The Aerial Tram is the world's longest aerial tram, some 2,200 feet long and some 1,178 feet above the Arkansas river. It is powered by a 75hp DC motor and travels on more than two miles of cable.

The incline railroad is the steepest in the world. Length of incline is 1,550 feet at a 100% grade, 45 degree angle. It travels at a speed of 3 mph and takes 5.5 minutes each way. It was engineered and constructed by the same crews that built the bridge.

There are several other things to do and see, it would be difficult to do them all in a day. And I might add they have several places to eat as well as get drinks and ice cream.

I will try to post more photos in the future on the Royal Gorge.