Giant Gap

as depicted by Thomas Moran in the 1876 guidebook, The Pacific Tourist.

... A few miles beyond, near Shady Run, there suddenly opens on the gaze of the expectant traveler, just before the sunlight has quite disappeared, and the evening shades come on, the vision of
The Great American Cañon,--by far the finest cañon of the entire Pacific Railroad. The suddeness of approach, and the grandeur of scene are so overpowering, that no pen, picture of language can give it adequate description. Two thousand feet below, flow the quiet waters of the American River. Westward is seen the chasm, where height and peak and summit hang loftily over the little vale. ...

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