Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1921-06-16

surrounding country. For the North
rim is 1,5OO feet higher than the South rim.
Presumably you will be able to use this suspen-
sion bridge this season. The national park service
Is working the bridge now and has been for
some time. But you can easily guess that building
thls bridge is some considerable jOb-especially
II YOU have ever travelled Bright Angel TRAIL down
which all the materials and tools have to be
packed Anyway, here's a sample of the kind of
dolngs that may happen any minute on that
famous trail
Homer j. Arm is one of the packers engaged in
getting stuff down Bright Angel trail The other
Gay he was taking down a string of animals Sew
eral of them were loaded with INT for blasting
at one of the sudden turns one of the pack animals
slipped. The rest got excited, Pretty soon one
animal went off the trail All eleven in the string
were tied together. Before long two more were
dragged off the trail. About this time Arm sue
.reeded in getting into the middle of the mixup
He cut the other eight animals loose and they
Staid on the trail.
OF course all three of the animals that fell off
were killed. One fell 1000 feet-without iniuring
his pack. One fell 200 feet-wthout exploding
the $50 pounds of INT in his pack And that's
what getting the bridge stuff down Bright Angel
trail is like.
look at the map gives the lay of the land
Bright Angel trail begins near Ell Tovar on the
South rim and winds down to the Colorado at
the bottom of Granite gorge Hermit trail begins
farther to the west and also goes down to the
river. Part of the way down, the Tonic trail,
running east and west, connects Hermit and
Bright Angel trails.
At the foot of Bright Angel trail there js on
aerial cabetram, which is used to ferry across
venturesome visitors. The cross marks the site
of the suspension bridge. The new trail will run
north along Bright Angel creek. The visitor will
ascend to the North rim at Bright Angel point
1t is 16 miles across the Grand canyon here
The descent from Ell Tovar to the river is about
1850 feet. The North river Is about 5000 feet
above the floor of the Grand canyon.
The view from the North rim is radically differ
ent. The temples lie in its foreground. One looks
down upon them at close range. The Granite
gorge is miles in the background, and the opposite
rim presents an apparently straight wall The OBJ
server is twelve or fifteen hundred feet higher
than the south rim and sees over 1t the desert
plain for many miles south, with far horizon
of distant mountains. Many who have seen both
prefer the south rim view, which has the temples
in broad perspective and confines the eye to the
spectacle of the canyon. Others prefer the north
rim because of its clOseness to the temples and it's
grasp of distant horizons. In the future thousands
of travellers will not be content until they see the
canyon from both rims.
Building the suspension bridge once the ma.
terial is on the spot, will not be difficult The
worst of the job is getting the stuff to the site
on mue-back. The material for the bridge will
consist principally of steel wire, n-eighths and
three-eighhs of an inch respectively in diameter !;
heavy wooden timbers, strips of flooring of nine
foot length and tools and blasting powder The
matter of getting the long cables down is going to
require the Harvesting of at least four mules tan.
dem and stringing of the load between them. The
main cables will weigh between 700 and 800
pounds apiece. A cable will be gathered into sew
era coils with about twenty to thirty feet of
slack between each coil These coiled cables will
then be put mules a coil to each.
At the bridge site an anchor Of steel rails and
concrete will be constructed in the solid rock
The upper cables will then be carried across to the
north side and secured in like fashion From end
TO end these upper cables will measure about 500
feet Eighty feet below them the floor of the
bridge will be anchored to the walls of the gorge
From the overhead cables side cables will come
down and run through the heavy timbers The
nine-foot panklng will be rlveted to these rafters
and n hog mesh wiring will be strung along either
side of the bridge to protect tourists The bridge
will be built forty feet above the ordinary height