The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-08-17
CROOKED AS A SNAKE
THE LONGEST SHORT LINE
 RAILROAD IN THE WORLD.
It Runs Between Colorado Springs and Cripple Creek and is Twice the Length of an
 Air Line.

They call it the Short Line. and let it Is the longest ride for its length in the world. The Short Line is Colorado railroad. It runs from Colorado Springs to Cripple Creek. On an air line Cripple Creek is twenty-one miles from Colorado Springs. On the short Line it is forty five miles. They say that if one were to remove all the curved rails from the Short Line, between Cripple Creek and Colo rado Springs, there would be scarcely two miles of track remaining. There are so many curves on this railroad that some passengers with weak stomachs get sea sick" while rounding them. On 8 long train on the Short Line the conductor, conversation with the engineer in the locomotive ahead. Of course, he has to talk while the train is rounding a curve. On these occasions, frequently, the engine is going In one direction, while the rear end of the train is going in another. It s all on account of the curves.
 When one sees the Short Line-all of it he wonders how any engineer, no mat ter how much of a genius he may have been. ever conceived the idea of building railroad over that part of the Rocky Mountains. Leaving Colorado Springs the road makes gradual ascent and in order to reach the top of the mountain by the shortest possible route (by raiD the Short Line does nothing but curve up one side and down the other.
 When the train gets by Manitou and begins really to climb, the passengers be- gin to enjoy the scenery. The curves are declared wonderful. A few more miles are traversed, a few more curves are rounded and the train continues to go up. up. up. Then there is more climbing and more curves, more high trestles, more canyons. more tunnels and the passenger, who was at first surprised and then amazed, is now awe-stricken. All he does Is to look from the car window, ejacu- late with such words as grand" re markable,' wonderful' and beautiful, , and gasp in absolute astonishment.
 It is not all hill-climbng on the Short Line, If it were this shortest route to Cripple Creek would be several miles long CT than it really is. The engineer realized that there were some hills he couldn t get over with a mogul, so he built tun- nels.
 There are nine of them on the Short Line, most all of them long ones, and when the train isn't going through one of these, it is generally crossing a trestle which stands from 700 to 900 feet above terra firma.
 When the passenger gets eighteen miles from Colorado Springs. and still sees that the distance. he marVels, but when he gets directly over Cripple Creek, about .000 feet above the level of the sea, he is astonished, and when he looks down on the thriving mlnlnS camp and asks If we are to reach 1t in about ten min utes," and when the brakeman tells him it will be two hours before we reach the depot at Cripple he goes down and out.
 From the summit of the Rockies. on the Short Line, Cripple Creek seems to be within walking distance, but don't try 1t. It's twelve miles away by the regI- lar path and the man who walks it, un- less he has a bottle of three-year-old Bourbon in his pistol pocket is liable to suffer
 It's a wonderful thing, this first view of Cripple Creek from the Short Line. The town looks like one of these villages painted on canvas. It is like a picture without a frame. Then, after the first view and as the train begins to wind around the curves, getting farther down the mountain and closer and closer to the city itself, the town gSows larger, objects can be seen plainer, men and wo- men who appeared as mere specks from the mountain top begin to look like boys and girls. Then they get larger and larger from your standpoint, and when the train reaches the last track and the bottom, and the houses are seen in their real sizes. instead of appearing as doll houses and dog shanties. and the people, Instead of resembling pygmies, look as