Royal Gorge Bridge and Park

A Suspension Bridge 956 Feet Above The Arkansas River, Built In 1929 Purely As A Tourist Attraction. The Highest Bridge In The World From 1929 Until 2001 And Still The Highest In The United States. · Canon City, Colorado

The Royal Gorge Bridge hangs 956 feet above the Arkansas River on a deck of twelve hundred and ninety-two wooden planks, and it was built for no reason at all except that people would pay to walk across it. It went up in 1929 in six months for around $350,000, and it held the record as the highest bridge in the world for seventy-two years - it is still the highest in the United States. The gorge beneath it is a thousand-foot granite slot that two railroads fought a two-year war over in the 1870s, complete with hired gunmen and stone forts, because it was the only way through to the Leadville silver. In 2013 a wildfire burned forty-eight of the park's fifty-two buildings and stopped at the bridge; the deck lost about a hundred planks and the structure itself was untouched. The park was rebuilt around it and reopened in 2015, which is why almost everything here except the bridge is modern - and why the bridge, closed to cars since the fire, is now walked rather than driven.

4218 County Road 3A, Canon City, Colorado, 81212, United States

Open daily year-round with seasonal hours - longer in summer, shorter in winter, and occasionally closed entirely in high wind or ice. THIS IS A TICKETED PRIVATE PARK, not a public road or a state park, and admission covers the bridge, the gondola and most attractions, with the zip line and via ferrata charged separately. The bridge has been closed to vehicles since the 2013 fire and is walked, not driven. The railroad along the river at the bottom of the gorge is an entirely separate business with its own tickets and depot in town.

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