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Royal Gorge Bridge and Park

Royal Gorge Bridge (looking west)[Bkthomson, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons]
Royal Gorge Bridge (looking west) [Bkthomson, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons]

It takes nature a long, long time to make a canyon. It is estimated that the Royal Gorge was 3 million in the making. The Arkansas River, at 1,400 miles, one of the largest rivers in America, has cut its channel more than a thousand feet deep through the granite at the estimated average of one foot every 2,500 years.

Royal Gorge is in a class by itself compared to other famous canyons; the width at the bottom is no more than 40 or 50 feet, while the top measures only a few hundred feet. Geologists now believe that the gorge was entirely accomplished through the slow task of erosion.

The bridge is considered to be the highest suspension bridge in the world.
Build in 1929, it hangs more than 1.100 ft (300 meters) high about the Arkansas River. Located ca. 8 mi to the west of the US 50. Unfortunately, there is no (more) good sight at the bridge, because so many marry-go-rounds and shops were built as part of the theme park.

Some facts:

  • Construction on the world’s highest suspension bridge began June 5, 1929, and completed Nov. 1929
  • Length: 1,260 feet (384 meters)
  • Width: 18 feet (5 meters)
  • Main Span: 880 feet (268 meters)
  • Towers: 150 feet high (46 meters)
  • 2,100 strands of No. 9 galvanized wire
  • Weight of cables: 300 tons
  • 1,000 tons of steel in the floor of Bridge

Opening Hours

Royal Gorge Bridge, Cañon City
Open: ca. 8:30 am – dusk
Park admission: ca. $24.00 for adults, children reduced.

Web: Royal Gorge Bridge (royalgorgebridge.com)

Address

4218 County Road 3A
Cañon City, CO 81215

Map

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