DENVER AND RIO GRANDE WESTERN RAIL ROAD, originally incorporated in 187o as the Denver and Rio Grande Railway Company, was organized to construct a narrow gage (3' o") railroad from Denver southward along the front of the Colorado Rocky Mountains with branches and lines extending into and through the mountains to Salt Lake City. In developing the natural resources of the region the prongs of the system grew to form a total of 1,925 miles including the Denver-Salt Lake City trunk. The importance of the trunk as a bridge line for through traffic had increased by 1890 to such extent as to necessi tate the conversion of the main line and some of the auxiliary lines from narrow to standard gage. Primarily functioning as a transcontinental link and an extensive collector of raw materials, Denver and Rio Grande Western was capitalized in 1928 at $2o6,353,138, operated 2,563 miles of road, and created annually 2,000,000,000 ton-miles and i6o,000,000 passenger-miles of trans portation. A new avenue of trade and travel through the moun tains, called James Peak Route in distinction from the Royal Gorge Route and 175 miles shorter than the latter, was opened for traffic in 1934 through the construction of the Dotsero Cutoff and use of the Moffat Tunnel under James Peak. (J. S. Pv.)