12 Miles, 40 bridges

[Anonymous]

One of the documentary channels (History,Discovery, etc)has been running a program called "12 miles, 40 bridges" about the construction of a short stretch of interstate highway (I-70, I think) in Colorado. The road had to be built through a scenic and environmentally sensitive valley. The thrust of the program dealt with the engineering of the highway in the least invasive way possible. What was interesting was just how UNOBTRUSIVE the rail line that shares the valley is, compared to the road. Even when trains were shown in the valley, they were barely noticeable compared to the road. I doubt if a non-railfan would have even noticed the trains passing through. One little touch that the producers couldn't pass up was the sound of STEAM whistles that accompanied most trains appearing in the video. Trouble is, I couldn't tell whether the whistle was "Lionel" or "Tyco"!! Ron H.

[alangj]

Haven't seen that documentary, but it sure sounds (if memory serves me correctly) like the section of I-70 east of Glenwood Springs, CO where the valley is so narrow (after the Colorado River and the D&RGW track take up their bit of real estate) that I-70 was more or less cantilevered out from the valley wall on a long series of bridges/viaducts. If you look at a site like Mapquest.com, then focus in on the area to the east of Glenwood Springs, you'll see that even on the on-screen "map", I-70 looks sort of "braided" in that area. I suspect that's Mapquest's way of showing the bridge situation. (Too bad that they haven't gotten the "Aerial Imaging" available for that part of the country just yet for a better look - in places where Mapquest does have the aerial photos available in sync with their roadmaps, the resolution is impressive.)

Alan
Evergreen Park, IL