Royal Gorge Bridge
— — a thread of road, a long way down to the river.
Not only on a wall.
“A suspension bridge across the Arkansas River in central Colorado, where the canyon opens to nine hundred and fifty-five feet of clean air between the deck and the water. The bridge was built in 1929 and held the record for the world's highest for more than seventy years. The river runs green and fast at the bottom; the rims hold piñon and Gambel oak. Cañon City sits a few miles east, where the canyon flattens and the high plains begin.
Royal Gorge Bridge, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
The Royal Gorge Bridge spans the Arkansas River in Fremont County, Colorado, about twelve miles west of Cañon City. The deck stands 955 feet above the river, making it the highest bridge in the United States and, from 1929 until 2001, the highest in the world. The total length is 1,260 feet, with a main span of 880 feet between the two towers. The gorge itself was cut by the Arkansas through Precambrian granite, and at its narrowest is only about fifty feet wide at the river.
The gorge walls are Precambrian granite, more than a billion years old, with vertical faces that climb roughly a thousand feet from the river. The bridge towers are steel, anchored into the rock at the rim. The original deck used 1,292 wooden planks; these were replaced in 2014 after the June 2013 wildfire burned the surrounding park and damaged about a hundred boards. The current deck retains the wood-plank surface the bridge has had since opening day. The Arkansas River below is one of the most rafted whitewater stretches in the American West.
The bridge is reached from US Highway 50, about a fifteen-minute drive west of Cañon City and roughly two hours south of Denver. The Royal Gorge Bridge & Park is open year-round, with daily hours that shift by season; summer is the busiest, and reservations are recommended in July and August. An aerial gondola crosses the gorge alongside the bridge, and a via ferrata route was added on the north wall in 2020. Vehicle traffic is no longer permitted on the deck, which became pedestrian-only after the 2013 reopening.