Wyoming

Union Pacific
Wyoming (Dale Creek Fill)
September 29, 1997




It seems like every picture book on the construction of the Union Pacific includes an 1860s era photograph of the famous Dale Creek Trestle, terrifyingly spindly and with sharp curves at each end. The Dale Creek Fill seen here is not that bridge filled in with rock and gravel, although many fills were constructed that way. The Dale Creek Fill (900 feet long and 120 feet high) is located several miles from the old trestle (long gone) on the new line over Sherman Hill which replaced the original in 1901. It required over 450,000 cubic yards of fill. Just east of here the Harriman Cutoff leaves the "new" main line to head south over a line built in 1952-1953 with lighter grades (although more roundabout), rejoining the main just west of Cheyenne.




This page posted 3/1/2019. Text and photo ©2019 Lamont Downs.