The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1892-07-19
A BRIDGE OF SALT.
h IL n Partly Natural and Partly Artl-
foial Wonder la Death Valley.

h IL u Partly Natural and Partly Artl-
fioial Wonder Ia Death Valley.
The natural wonders of Death valley have
probably been more infinitely and extens-
lively described by professional writer's than
nny other spot they never saw. but one
wonder there has In some wav escaped these
kuntraveled scribes. says tho San Francisco
Examiner. In 1853 come borax works wer0
built on the east sido of the valley. n couple
! Of miles or 10 above the mouth Of Furnace
Crock canyon. The road thence to the
RAILROAD led down the o asst side Of the valley
Tor several miles. and then had to cross
over to tho west because no drinking " alter
can DO had on the east side below Furnace
creek. Moreover. the land on tho west
side lies much better for a road. But how
TO got the wagons across the valley was a
problem. From end the center Of the val
lev Ia one long salt marsh, and in most
places it 10 30 soft and wet that even q man
/ would need snowshoes to insure saiety'
Elsewhere, however, the ooze mas baen
cruBted over. This crust ID in places very
| thin and treacherous, and only in one To-
Cality does ii seem to be hrm.
Wherever this crust has been cut through
a thin Shiny salt mud has been found to be
Of unreasonable depth--unmeasurable with
corps of scientists Ont through in one place
md easily showed u pole down fifteen feet.
There Ia no guessing how much deeper the
slime was.
However, a road must be had, and 80 the
workmen went about over the marsh where
the crust seemed to be thickeat and sounded
it with sledge hammers. They found the
crust was a mixture OF salt and sand, and
eventually a route was decided upon. The
road was then to be graded. and probably
for the first time in the world a road Of tho
length of this one was graded exclusively
with sledpe hammers.
Here was a stretch of solid salt some
eight miles across. In a sense it was level
there we're no hills or valleys. In an
other there was scarce a level square inch
on the whole bed, for tho salt crust had
probably, through the influence of heat
from above and Of moisture from below,
been torn and twisted and thrown up into
the most Jagged peaks, pyramids and cris-
crossed ridges imaginable. They were not
high-none more than four feet-but there
was not level space even for a mans foot
between them. Every step made was on a
ragged point or edge of some kind. The
nearest approach to anything like that l
have ever seen was on the ice on Lake Erie.
where two fields had been iammed together
bv the wind and held SO by the frost. The
ragged ice masses were somewhat ike
these salt masses. They were larger. bat
they we're not SO sharp nor in any way 80
difficult to cross.
Judging that the crust would sustain the
weight Of the wagons. tho workmen swung
their sledge hammers day after day until
they had beaten down these pinnacles into
smooth pathway six feet wide. 1t was,
perhaps. the most laborious engineering
work ever don in the country. for the eli
mate and location. far from civilized habi-
~tations. combined to retard the efforts Of
the workmen. The roadway. when conn.,
pleted, led over what may be properly called
a naturally formed bridge of salt eight
miles long-the only bridge OF the kin in
the world.
As one enters the ~easterly end of this
road two unmarked graves are seen in the
salt crust near the track. They are graves
of unknown men who died there from the
heat. and, after the fashion of the country,
were buried where they fell. They were
covered over with pieces of salt broken
from the pinnacles near by. The crust was
too hard to warrant digging into it. One
must trayel a long time to find two more
graves like those, if, indeed. two nore can
be found in the world,