The Royal Gorge Bridge,
in Colorado, is the highest bridge in America and was the highest
bridge in the world until 2001, and the highest suspension bridge until
2003. In both cases, the Chinese built something higher.
Royal Gorge Bridge – In A Colorado Minute (Week 300)
For the 300th week of my weekly 1-minute Moving Postcard video series, fashion designer and quilter Miriam Blaich (visiting from Berlin), husband Scott Solary, dog Whiskey, and I went on a little road trip to Cañon City in Fremont County, Colorado, to explore the Royal Gorge and surrounding attractions.
I ended up shooting material for 5 videos, which I will share in the coming weeks. But for now, let’s take a walk across the Royal Gorge Bridge… And if you dare, we’ll even take the gondola…
The
Royal Gorge is about 10 miles long, with granite walls rising 1,000
feet above the winding Arkansas River. The river, then just a trickle,
started carving this gorge about 3 million years ago and continues to
“dig out” another foot every 2,500 years.
The Royal Gorge Bridge
was built in 1929 as a tourist attraction. The bridge deck crosses the
Arkansas River at 955 feet (291 m), its span is 880 feet (270 m), and
its total length is 1,260 feet (384 m).
To walk or drive (in the mornings and evenings only) across the bridge, you have to enter the Royal Gorge Bridge and Park.
The price of admission ($20) includes not only access to the bridge,
but also viewing of a documentary and riding the gondola. The 360-acres
park offers other rides and attractions, like zip-lining across the
gorge.
A few tips: Before or after you explore the park and the
bridge, turn off the main road to the park and stop to enjoy majestic
vistas at the Elkhorn Picnic area. Get your ticket online to save $2.
Last but not least, walking across the bridge first and then taking the
gondola back requires a bit of a hike to the gondola station. If you
want to avoid the trek up the hill, take the gondola across first, then
leisurely walk down to the bridge.
In the video, you can see the Royal Gorge Railroad
train snaking its way along the bottom of the gorge. Our original plan
for week 300 was to take that train and make a video about that –
because I LOVE train travel. However, even weeks in advance, tickets
were sold out. But don’t you worry, I already have a plan to take the
train another time and share that video with you.
Oh, and the difference between a gorge and a canyon? A gorge is much wider at the top than at the bottom.
The featured song is called “Paper Wings” by Jason Shaw of Audinautix.com.
He has made this and many other instrumental songs available via a CC
BY 3.0 license, which is totally awesome! Thank you so much for all your
creativity and generosity, Jason!
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| Royal Gorge Bridge over the Arkansas River Cañon City, Colorado |
Keep an eye out for more photos from the Royal Gorge that I’ll be posting on this blog soon and for more videos shot during week 300, which I’ll publish right here within the next month or so…