When it was decided to connect Wicklow with Bray, the trying character of the country lying between the two points, and especially of Bray Head, demanded a masterhand to effect the location and to carry the building operations through to success. It was a matter of sixteen miles, but they proved perhaps the most trying sixteen miles of railway construction ever attempted in this country. It was stated that Bray Head would defy conquest, for it was approachable only through very rocky country, and it is quite possible that the gloomy outlook was responsible for tempting Brunel to achieve something bold and striking. There was no need to have carried the line in this direction, a fact which is realised to-day, for by making a detour inland an easier location could have been found, and the present generation would not have been called upon to pour out heavy sums of money to keep their line intact. Brunel’s vanity has cost the railway company several thousands of pounds since the line was opened. It is only by superhuman effort that the railway is not devoured by the sea, over £40,000, or $200,000, having been expended in defence works over this sixteen miles of line during a period of ten years alone. Apart from this unsatisfactory feature the line is a constant source of anxiety. A little to the south of Bray is Bramstone tunnel and a wild ravine. This gulch attracted the engineer. Instead of avoiding it, he bridged it with a wooden viaduct 300 feet long by 75 feet high. Before it was quite completed it was destroyed in a single night, the demolished timbers being carried out to sea. A few years later, while a train was crossing, the engine left the metals and precipitated a sensational accident. Investigation revealed the fact that it was due to the action of the waves, which, battering against the piers of the viaduct, had so vibrated the structure as to throw the rails out of gauge. Thereupon it was decided to abandon the viaduct and drive the line directly through the rocky promontory. The traveller still can see traces of the original route in the decaying approaches to the gap formerly conquered by a timber trestle. [Illustration: _Brack, photo_] THE PECOS VIADUCT ON THE “SUNSET” RAILWAY, THE HIGHEST STRUCTURE IN THE UNITED STATES, THE TRACK BEING 321 FEET ABOVE THE WATER BELOW]