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This illustration dates to the 1870s and shows a trestle bridge that is part of the rail line of the Great Pacific railway - the transcontinental railway. At Sherman, 549 miles from Omaha, the line attains the summit of its track over the Black Hills, and the highest point on any railway in the world (in the 1870s), being 8,242 ft. above the level of the sea. Wild and desolate scenery characterizes the district round Sherman, and the hills, in places covered with a dense growth of wood, will furnish an immense supply of timber for years to come. The timber-sheds erected over the line, and the fences beside it are not so much on account of the depth of snow that falls, but to prevent it from blocking the line by being drifted into the cuts by the high wind. A few miles beyond Dale Creek at Sherman is the largest bridge on the line. It is a trestle bridge, 650 ft. long and 126 ft. high, and has a very light appearance, indeed, to an English eye unaccustomed to these impromptu timber structures, it looks unpleasantly light. (Photo by: Ivy Close Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)