Show atah s wonderful natural brid bridges 9 es in the windows of the city ticket office of the rio grande western railroad there are displayed three large photographs that have been attracting a great deal of attention of late these photographs give one an excellent idea of the magnitude and character of three natural bridges which have been discovered in utah and the rio grande company takes more than usual interest in their discovery owing to the fact that to reach them one must needs travel over its road these great natural wonders will be visited hy by m many tourists during the coming season they are well worth seeing ani and as to their character and size are de river they hey ascended the canyon tor for sev several miles passing numerous ancient cliff ell ft dwellers until they had their first sight of the great bridges the travelers travelers irav elers had with them no scientific instruments for making accurate measurements but by a series of rough eions long obtained results which are doubtless correct within narrow limits the first bridge which they named the caroline in honor of mr wife measures feet 6 inches from buttress to buttress across the bottom of the canyon from the surface of the water to the center of the arch above is a sheer height of feet and 7 7 oil 17 4 0 i 14 1 ALI INING THE LITTLE BRIDGE scribed ascribed as follows by one of our eastern exchanges three gigantic badges br adges greatly surpassing the great natural bridge of virginia have recently been discovered at the head of white canyon in san juan county utah they are described in the century mg Inn zine for august by W W dyar ane anc the magazine also publishes several photographs gra dha of them and a remarkable colored picture of the largest bridge the bridges are many miles from the railroad and it is said cn can be reached only in the spring of of the year lack the as of water makes region inaccessible except during the early months in march 1903 horace J long a engineer conducted by a cattleman named rup who had caught a dis tant lant glimpse of the bridges in 1893 and had desired to examine them ever since entered white canyon at a point two days march from dandy crossing on the colorado over the arch at its highest point the solid mass of sandstone rises feet farther to the level floor of the bridge A traveler crossing the canyon by this titanic masonry would thus pass feet above the bed of the stream the floor of the bridge is feet wide so that an army could march over it in columns of companies and still leave room at the side for a continuous stream of artillery and baggage wagons the second bridge is about three and one half miles farther up the canyon its height la 14 more than twice and its span more than thain three times as great as those of the famous natural bridge of virginia its buttres buttresses seP are feet farther apart than those of the celebrated masonry arch in maryland known as cabin john bridge a few miles from washington city which has the greatest span of any masonry bridge on this continent the bridge would the capitol at washington and clear the top of the dome by afif fifty tyone ty one feet and if the I 1 triest tree in the calaveras talaveras Cala veras grove of efant sequoia in california Cali tornia stood at the bottom of the canyon its topmost bough would lack thirty two feet of reaching the under side of the arch emulating the example of mr rup long named this bridge the augusta in honor of his wife and it is fortunate that the lady was so appropriately christened this bridge is of white or very light sandstone and as in the case of the caroline fl filaments laments of green and orange tinted lin linchen chens run here and there over the mighty buttresses and along the sheltered crevices under the lofty cornice giving warmth and color to the wonderful picture our explorers were unable to scale the walls of the canyon in the immediate neighborhood of either of these two bridges and their time was too limited to permit of an extended search for a ravine or wash that would lead them to the top of the cliffs about twelve miles down the canyon is the third bridge long in his rough notes of the trip cals this the little bridge and we may well retain this designation its dimensions however are only sm allas compared with the gigantic proportions of the ohp caro caroline line and the augusta for it has a span of feet 4 inches and the under s side de of the arch is teet feet above the bottom of the canyon the crown of the arch is eighteen feet eight inches thick and the surface or roadway thirty three feet five inches wide the slenderness of this arial aria pathway and the fact that the canyon here opens out into a sloping valley beyond rendered it possible for the camera to give a proper impression of loftiness indeed judging from the photographs alone one might suppose this to be the highest of the three bridges whereas it has but a little more than one third the altitude of the wonderful augusta arch it was comparatively easy to reach the top of this bridge and among longs notes were the tol following lowing rode our horses over I 1 am the first white man who tas ever ridden over this bridge |