About eight miles from Headquarters, and three miles from the Second
Forest, is the most noted tree in the Monument, the Natural Bridge. This
sleeping giant lies where it was abandoned as a plaything by the waters
that carried it here. Each end is firmly embedded in the sandstone rock,
which was formerly the sand at the bottom of the sea. In the process of
erosion, which finally carried away all of the material above this log,
it ultimately came to lie on the surface of the ground. As the land
rises somewhat to the south of it, water gathered there with the big log
forming a natural dam. This water tended to soften the sandstone, and
after a period of time it forced its way through under the log. Soon
this became a free passage for the water, and resulted in the formation
of the gorge which the prostrate trunk spans today.
The Natural Bridge log is about four feet in thickness at the largest
point in sight. Part of the log is still encrusted with the sandstone
which wrapped it about, before wind and rain unshrouded it. The canyon
is twenty-five feet deep, and this one hundred and eleven foot log
measures forty-four feet between the points at which it rests on the
sides of the arroyo.
From the canyon beneath it, cedar, juniper and cottonwood trees have
sprung to life and grown up to furnish shade for this comrade of another
Age. They must seem mere upstarts to this old veteran!
A hundred yards or so to the east, down over the rim of the mesa, is
another freak of erosion, called the Pedestal Log. It is a large
section, resting upon a support of sandstone, ten or fifteen feet above
the level of the surrounding plain. It forms a protective cap which has
kept the softer material immediately under it from washing away.