After our visit to the sand dunes, Betty and I ventured to Royal Gorge Bridge and Park. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I sure wasn't expecting to find myself standing in the middle of a suspension bridge staring straight down nearly a thousand feet to the Arkansas River.
An amusement park of sorts has built up around this engineering marvel. There's a giant swing, they call it a skycoaster, that flings riders out in midair for a bird's eye view of the gorge, zip lines, and cable cars.
We chose the cable car for our first pass across the gorge.
That cable car left me looking forward to having a solid bridge beneath my feet on the way back across the gorge.
While the bridge was no doubt structurally sound, it did not provide a sense of solidity. The unending parade of people created a continuous bounce. When a motorized jitney came across, I lurched for the handrail and white-knuckled the metal until the worst of the bouncing had passed.
Once in the middle, the views were spectacular. I confess that while on the bridge all of my photographs were taken one-handed, with my other hand firmly gripping a railing or strut.
While the key support system of the bridge is steel, the deck is made of wooden planks. The flags of all 50 states fly along the handrails.
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