Rollins Pass, Colorado

A railroad was built over the Continental Divide at Rollins Pass in 1903. At 11,677 feet, it was the highest non-cog railway in the nation. Much of the route was covered with wooden snowsheds, but snow removal was always a problem, and the route was meant to last just until a tunnel could be built at a much lower elevation, away from the snowdrifts, and without all the curves and the four percent grades. Finally this happened, in 1928, when the Moffat Tunnel opened, and this 23-mile section over the pass was made obsolete. The tracks were pulled up around 1936, and over time the trestles and three tunnels on the route collapsed. The 170-foot long Needle’s Eye Tunnel, near the crest of the Pass, remained somewhat intact, and was visited recreationally by motorists, bikers, and hikers. It was closed off in 1990, after a visitor was injured in a rock fall in the tunnel, and since that time the route has been blocked.