Day #1 in Tehachapi...
I arrived in town before my dear college girlfriend, Leslie, finished her day of teaching. I came to explore this quaint town and learn more about its incredible past. It's a familiar history with tales of Native Americans, mining, homesteading, and the railroad.
I spent my afternoon in three different museums, discovering new information and enjoying Tehachapi even more. I'm intrigued by its past. The photo of the train track is the famous "Loop", an engineering phenomenon that continues to amaze me.
The railroad construction brought world-renowned engineering fame to the Tehachapi area during construction of "The Loop". While laying tracks from Bakersfield to Mojave, engineers needed to develop a plan to traverse the mountains at higher elevations and to devise a method for safely slowing the momentum of east bound trains as they carefully chugged down the mountain to Bakersfield.
The solution was to bring in thousands of workers (3000 from China alone) using picks, shovels and dynamite to create 18 tunnels as well as "The Loop". The Loop is a flat, graded area where an average 4000 foot long train will circle over itself, on both eastbound and westbound routes. Today, nearly 40 trains a day utilize this route in enabling the delivery of tons of product to all areas of California and throughout the Nation.
The solution was to bring in thousands of workers (3000 from China alone) using picks, shovels and dynamite to create 18 tunnels as well as "The Loop". The Loop is a flat, graded area where an average 4000 foot long train will circle over itself, on both eastbound and westbound routes. Today, nearly 40 trains a day utilize this route in enabling the delivery of tons of product to all areas of California and throughout the Nation.
I am writing this post while delighting in pie at The Apple Shed. My Tehachapi traditions are alive and well. I'm a content traveler.
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