Interstate 80 Crossing the Continental Divide, Wyoming

In southwest Wyoming, the Continental Divide divides, circling an arid basin called the Great Divide Basin, where drainage goes inward and evaporates, instead of flowing to the Ocean. Interstate 80, the most direct route between New York and San Francisco, crosses into and out of the Basin, thus crossing the Continental Divide twice in a space of 50 miles. Alongside the Interstate are the tracks of the Union Pacific Railway, also crossing the Divide twice (into and out of the Basin). This is the path that the first transcontinental railway took westward, to meet its eastbound counterpart at Promontory, Utah in 1869, 250 miles west of here. The tracks and the interstate over the Divide are now important utility corridors, connecting east and west. These include fiber optic communication lines, operated by the Level 3 Company, and natural gas lines run by the Enterprise Products Company.