"Canyon Diablo History" |
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Canyon Diablo, also known as “Devil’s Canyon”, is located between Winslow and Flagstaff in northern Arizona. In 1853, Captain Amiel Whipple followed the 35th parallel as he surveyed for a possible railroad route to California. In December 1853, the survey party reached a gorge 220 feet deep that Captain Whipple named Canyon Diablo, describing it as a canyon that could be bridged by a railroad. In 1880, the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad began building a rail line west from Winslow, and eventually reached the east side of the canyon. The town of Canyon Diablo sprang into existence while the railroad waited for engineers and construction material to begin work on the bridge. |
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| Between 1880 and 1882, more killings from gunfights, robberies, and murders took place in the town of Canyon Diablo than in Abilene, Dodge City and Tombstone combined. In one famous gun battle in 1905, two marshals and two outlaws emptied their six shooters so rapidly that it sounded like a huge explosion. Twenty-one shots were fired in three seconds, with one of the outlaws killed and the other one wounded. |
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| In 1881, the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad experienced financial difficulties, so the task of completing the Canyon Diablo Bridge was given to the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad. The first bridge was built but had a speed restriction of 10 miles per hour across the span. In 1913, a gauntlet track was added to increase capacity, but the speed restriction caused traffic delays. Management at the Santa Fe Railroad decided it was important to eliminate the traffic bottlenecks and invested millions of dollars to upgrade the bridges across the system. Construction began on a new bridge just north of the old Canyon Diablo Bridge. Construction workers began pumping concrete into the cracks of the limestone canyon walls, then built the concrete piers to support the new bridge. The new 544 foot long Canyon Diablo Bridge, which includes a 300-foot hinged arch with 120-foot spans on either side, was opened in September 1947. Because there are no speed restrictions on the new bridge, high speed intermodal freight trains race across the structure at 70 miles per hour. |
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| Danger is still a resident of Canyon Diablo as strong winds have been known to race through the canyon with such force, truck trailers have been blown off railroad flatcars and sent to the bottom of the gorge. The town of Canyon Diablo is now a ghost town, all that remains of the old bridge are the concrete supports, and now new Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad diesel locomotives race across the Canyon Diablo Bridge, the site of "The Old and the New." |
