Lieutenant Zubulon M. Pike and his men, traveling through this area in November and December 1806, were the first American explorers to view the Arkansas River canyon now known as the Royal Gorge. A small party from Major Stephen H. Long's expedition visited the mouth of the canyon in 1820, and members of Lieutenant John C. Fremont's expedition did so in 1845. In 1878, a right of way through Royal Gorge became the focus of a bitter struggle between the Denver and Rio Grande and the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroads, with the D and RG winning the route through court action. Congress ceded the land comprising Royal Gorge Park to Canon City in 1906, and the world's highest suspension bridge, spanning the Arkansas River one thousand fifty-three feet below, was built in 1929. Elevation 6,626 feet.