Dale Creek Crossing (48AB145)
a.k.a. 48AB145
4 mi. W of Sherman, Ames Monument, WYThe Dale Creek Crossing is significant for its association with the establishment of the transcontinental railroad which opened the west for settlement following the Civil War. Though the bridge itself has been removed the site still embodies some distinctive characteristics of early transcontinental railroad bridge construction through the hand-fitted stone piers and abutments which remain intact. These stone figures exemplify a 19th-century engineering achievement that allowed the transcontinental railroaders to span the 130 foot deep 713 foot wide Dale Creek Gorge (the largest obstacle in building the mountain portion of the line) to continue their tracklaying race west. Construction of the bridge required the implementation of state-of-the-art technology, imagination, and ingenuity which resulted in revolutionizing the existing transportation system and secured the final taming of the American West. This site retains a very high degree of integrity of setting, location, feeling, and association and an acceptable degree of integrity of materials, workmanship, and design which contribute to its dramatic sense of time and place.
Local significance of the site:Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1986.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.