This gulf is spanned by a solid masonry bridge almost as wonderful as the Hanging Bridge. It recalls a swallow’s nest built under the eaves of a roof, for it is thrown across the gap to the opposite mountain ledge in the form of a balcony. Sudden emergence from the inky blackness of the mountain’s heart to this frail-looking link with the frowning wall opposite, and the depth of the fissure is decidedly startling. If the Eiffel Tower were planted in this gorge it would be dwarfed into insignificance, for its topmost platform would be over 500 feet below the railway track. To throw the bridge across this rift the men had to be slung out from derricks, manipulating their trowels from an unsteady platform--the snap of a rope, a missed footing, and certain death on the splintering crags below awaited the unlucky. It is upon this same section that one traverses the wonderful Ophir Loop, by means of which the Divide at Dallas is negotiated. The towering Ophir mountain stands directly in the path of the line. A detour was impossible; the mountain had to be ascended, but in so doing the engineer imposed a fearful task upon the locomotives. The rise is 4 per cent. In other words, for every 25 feet the train advances, it has to rise 12 inches. The line skirts the base of the mountain, describes a sharp semicircular curve, and then runs directly backwards, the track being parallel with that a few feet below. The Stelvio road over the Alps is a wonderful zigzag climb, but it does not double and re-double more than this ascent up Ophir mountain. Terrace after terrace of track is left below, extending through cutting, over embankment and high trestles, until the top is gained. [Illustration: CROSSING THE CONTINENTAL “DIVIDE” ON THE “MOFFATT” ROAD The train has climbed from the track at the bottom of the picture to the top of the cliff.]