l described it as "God's greatest miracle in
stone." And Henry Clay said it was "the bridge not made with hands, that
spans a river, carries a highway, and makes two mountains one." On the
rocky abutments are found carved the names of many persons. Among them
is that of Washington. In his youth, laboriously cutting places for his
hands and feet, he climbed up the face of one of the steep abutments and
cut his name above all others, where for seventy years it stood
unsurpassed in height. In 1818 a daring college student climbed from the
foot to the top of the rock, thus outranking all others.

The Natural Bridge is composed of blue limestone; it is two hundred and
fifteen feet high, ninety feet wide, and spans a chasm eighty-five feet
across. A public highway lined with trees passes over the top. The
bridge itself is all that remains of the roof of what once was a
limestone cavern.

The southeastern part of Utah is overlaid with strata of red and yellow
sandstone hundreds of feet deep. Ages ago this whole region was elevated
and thereby was distorted by the internal forces which pushed it upward.
Subsequently wonderful transformations were wrought. The flowing streams
gradually bored through portions of the soft, uplifted sandstone,
forming arches and digging deep canyons, while the air and rain rounded
off the rugged parts into graceful shapes.

Wonderful as is the famous Natural Bridge of Virginia, the natural
bridges of Utah are still more wonderful. In White Canyon of
southeastern Utah are Edwin, Carolyn, and Augusta Bridges--magnificent
structures of pink sandstone carved in lines of classic symmetry and
possessing gigantic proportions. At least half a dozen natural bridges
in Utah surpass that of Virginia, not only in beauty and grandeur, but
also in dimensions. They were discovered by cattlemen in 1895, but they
did not become known to the outside world until 1909, when the region
was explored by the Utah Archaeological Expedition.

[Illustration: Witch Rocks, near Echo Canyon, Utah]

Of these bridges the Edwin easily ranks first in graceful symmetry; its
span is one hundred and ninety-four feet, its elevation one hundred and
eight feet, its width thirty-five feet. Combining grace and massiveness,
the Augusta stands pre-eminent. It rises in majestic proportions to the
height of two hundred and twenty-two feet and has a span between
abutments of two hundred and sixteen feet. The width of the road-bed is
twenty