Rogers Pass (British Columbia)

The Rogers Pass and surrounding mountains

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The Rogers Pass is a 1330 m high mountain pass in the Selkirk Mountains in the Canadian province of British Columbia. About him lead the Trans-Canada Highway, while the transcontinental railroad line of the Canadian Pacific Railway ( CPR) crosses under the pass at the Connaught Tunnel and the Mount Macdonald Tunnel. The pass is a shortcut in a large bend of the Columbia River between Revelstoke and Golden in the west to the east. He was discovered on May 29, 1881 by Albert Bowman Rogers, a surveyor in the service of CPR. In recognition of the technical performance of the construction of railways pass on 27 May 1971 by the Canadian government, was declared a National Historic Site of Canada.

Geography

The pass is located in the center of Glacier National Park and is the starting point for many popular ski touring and climbing routes in the nearby mountains. Here are a visitor center, several hotels and the management of the National Park. The pass itself is a narrow, limited by steep mountain walls high valley. To the west of the Illecillewaet River flows to the east of the Beaver River. Both are tributaries of the Columbia River, which makes a detour of 240 miles north of the pass and the mountain range.

The Rogers Pass is known for heavy snowfall; every winter here fall about ten feet of snow. Because of the steep mountain slopes avalanches are very common. In order to keep the Trans-Canada Highway in winter open, solves the Canadian Army with 105 mm howitzers controlled avalanches to eliminate the danger to the road.

Discovery

As during the 1870s, the Canadian government planned the Canadian Pacific Railway, the first proposed route over the more northerly Yellowhead should lead pass. When the railway construction in 1881 transferred to a private company, we instead chose the Kicking Horse Pass on the border of Alberta as a transition to the Continental Divide. But still had to find a way through until now unexplored Selkirk Mountains.

Major Albert Bowman Rogers was commissioned by CPR in April 1881 to find a pass crossing. They promised him a check for $ 5,000, also the passport should be named after him. The engineer Walter Moberly had previously discovered a little further to the west to Eagle Pass. The assumptions of Moberly trusting Rogers began his expedition to the point where lies the city Revelstoke today.

Rogers and his expedition companions followed the Illecillewaet River. Because they ran out of food, they returned shortly before the pass. The second expedition in 1882 resulted from the east through the valley of the Beaver River. Rogers reached a point from where he could see the place where he had to turn around last year. Now he was sure to have found a suitable transition for the railroad, which was already at this time in an advanced stage of construction. The CPR held on to the promise, baptized the transition " Rogers Pass " and handed over the check. Rogers refused at first but, cash the check, this one framed instead and said he had not done so for money, but for fame. Finally was able to persuade him to redemption CPR manager William Cornelius Van Horne, as he put it an engraved clock.

Canadian Pacific Railway

When in 1884 the railroad was built through the pass, in the eastern valley, the construction of some of the largest bridges in the entire route was necessary, including the much-photographed Stony Creek Bridge. On the west side they built a series of loops to avoid the biggest climbs and the most dangerous avalanche zones. After completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway in November 1885, the line was closed in the following winter for the time being, to observe the avalanches. Based on these observations erected 31 avalanche galleries with a total length of 6.5 kilometers.

Despite all precautions nevertheless occurred some tragic avalanches. 1899 have been used for eight people killed when an avalanche destroyed the station at the pass. 1910 was a team with a snow plow on the road to clear the route just spilled, when triggered a second avalanche; in this railway accident of Rogers Pass 62 people died. The CPR then decided to build the 8.1 km long Connaught Tunnel under Rogers Pass through in order to avoid the dangerous zone can. The tunnel opened in 1916 was then the longest in North America. This was supplemented in 1988 by the 14.7 km long Mount Macdonald Tunnel.

Trans-Canada Highway

The main road between Revelstoke and Golden led along the Columbia River and made it the great going through the " big bend " far north of Rogers Pass. Between 1956 and 1962, the Highway 1 was built over the pass to shorten the route. A number of avalanche galleries and earth dams protect this highway in front of the avalanches.