Wyoming Had The Most Dangerous Bridge Of The Old West

One of the longest and most difficult-to-build train bridges in America used to be in Wyoming.

It was scary as all hell to ride across too.

Dale Creek Crossing was a railway bridge of 650-feet, completed in 1868 in the southeastern Wyoming Territory.

This long and high crossing presented engineers of the United States' first transcontinental railroad as one of their most difficult challenges.

The bridge was located two miles west of Sherman, Wyoming North of Laramie.

Go north or Laramie to the town of Buford, then look west on the map and you'll see that there was once a town named Sherman. That's where the bridge was.

It was 150 feet above Dale Creek.

The first Dale Creek Bridge was a wooden structure 720 feet long.

Construction required cutting through granite for nearly a mile.

The publication, Harper's Weekly, 1868, wrote that the bridge was originally built of wood.

That was a bad idea.

The trestle swayed in the wind as the first train crossed on April 23, 1868.

Carpenters rushed to shore up the bridge, two fell to their deaths.

The bridge's timbers continued to flex under the strain of passing trains.

Dale Creek Iron Viaduct was built for reinforcements.

The second bridge was built in 1885.

That's the photo you see above.

Those skinny iron legs did not instil much confidence in those who hated the old wooden bridge.

But iron was much stronger.

The original bridge was replaced on the 1868 piers in 1876 by an iron bridge, manufactured by the American Bridge Company.

Trains still slowed considerably to cross it.

But at least it stopped wobbling.

As you might imagine, today's crossing looks much different.