Natural Bridges
roadways of undisturbed, that is to say, living rock, extending across gorges or canyons. The term was given at an early day to a peculiar gorge at Cedar Creek, 125 miles west of Richmond, Virginia. The creek passes under a natural archway of limestone rock, all that is now left of a stratum that at one time must have covered the country. It may be likened to a cavern with the surrounding country gone. The arch is 200 feet high and about 60 wide. The sides are nearly perpendicular. The crown or thickness over the center of the arch is 40 feet. There are many natural bridges in America. One of these stone roadways crosses the canyon of the Verde River, 100 miles south of Jerome, Arizona. The span of this bridge is 200 feet long and about 180 feet wide. An old trapper is said to cultivate a garden patch on the bridge 200 feet above the torrent below. There is a natural bridge in Alabama, with a span of 120 feet. The Augusta Bridge in Utah is said to have a span of 320 feet, a height of 265 feet, and a roadway of 35 feet. The Augusta is the largest natural bridge known. Two other natural bridges, the Caroline and the Edwin, are located near the Augusta. See Petrified Forest
As we draw near the big bridges, we feel an anxiety lest they fail to reach our expectations. Three of us have come a long and weary way in quest of them. Leaving the Rio Grande Western at Thompson's Springs, we came by stage to Moab, where Grand river was crossed, thence 125 miles by slow wagon with our instruments and supplies among mountains and wind-swept deserts, jolting over rocky wastes or dragging slowly through deep sands to the little town of Bluff, on the San Juan river. We still have sixty miles to go, but there are no more wagon roads, and we engage four men and twenty animals to take us the rest of the way, although our guide is the only man in Bluff who has ever seen the bridges. Then by devious and dangerous trails we come, over the break-neck Navajo Pass, splashing for miles up the muddy torrent of Comb Wash, riding the rims of sunken gorges, nooning at water-pockets made by recent rains, sleeping at night in great caves, until the high cedar ridge is reached and the bridges are close at hand.
From where we enter White Canyon, we make our way four miles up stream, floundering among quicksands and waterholes, breaking through copses of willow and scrub oak, crouching under boughs of great cottonwoods, cutting a new trail where recent floods have washed away the old one, and on making a sharp turn in the gorge, we behold one of the most magnificent and shapely structures ever achieved by Nature, the gigantic Augusta Bridge!
It is by far the greatest natural bridge in the world, being 265 feet from the stream to the causeway above. The latter is 35 feet in width and 83 feet thick, while the span is 320 feet. Hitherto it has been deemed inaccessible, but several of us reach the top by difficult climbing aided by rope ladders, and by use of our longest line make the above measurements, which we inscribe in durable oil paint, together with the name of the bridge, on one of the abutments. This we do over the signature of the Commercial Club of Salt Lake City, who sent out the expedition. The altitude at base is 6,050 feet above sea level, yet at one time, as geologists have proved, these ledges were beneath the ocean.
The Augusta bridge must henceforth rank with the greatest of natural wonders, and take its place with Niagara, the Yellowstone geysers, and the Grand Canyon in Arizona, as one of the masterpieces of American landscape. It is set in the midst of big things. The trees beneath are giants of their kind, the cliffs round about are massive and towering, but the sweeping lines of this colossal bridge dominate everything, making the horsemen look like pigmies and the great pines that cling to its abutments appear like shrubbery. It is of a light red hue, somewhat weather-stained in places, but glowing in color on the under side of the arch where it is protected and where the cleavages are fresh. A sense of enormous strength pervades it, a sense that it has endured for ages, and will endure for ages yet to come. A short steep canyon, stone paved, and without a vestige of soil, comes in from the south and joins the main arch beneath the bridge. High among the surrounding ledges, are many ruins of cliff-dwellings.-H. L. A. Culmer, in Technical World.