> Any idea as to the history of the track??

It's in some of the other links that I posted.
There are a few versions but most likely *seems* that it was 
built in about 1895 - 1901 period to provide access for 
workers on a hydro scheme. (Or making the railway, or ... ?)

The Spanish King did/didn't use it in about 1970 on a tour 
of inspection.

In the 1970's it was intact (as you'd expect if used by 
royalty) and with handrails and able to be run over with 
(relative) safety. It's possible that they upgraded it at 
that stage for royal use (as some sites suggest it was built 
for his visit) but the original is certainly 100+ years old. 
Degradation from runnable in 30+ years after surviving for 
70+ seems odd so the upgrade idea makes some sense.

The route provides access to the El Camino area for 
climbers. One site tells of two climbers who access the 
walkway via the rail tunnel, have a close call with a train 
and then use the decayed walkway prior to the "safety" cable 
having been fitted. The writer notes that they had to jump 
some gaps and are rather shaken on completion so do some 
climbing to calm their nerves.

All types ... :-).

I'm no 'thrill seeker'. I am to some extent, where it seems 
appropriate, a qualified-risk taker. I'd consider crossing 
it if there seemed a VERY good reason to do so, provided the 
recent years death rate was extremely modest* relative to 
the usage rate, but I'd be utterly petrified throughout. My 
experience so far in life is that you can perform activities 
where people die only occasionally with a high degree of 
success (100% so far) and a degree of wonder about why it is 
people actually die there. This may be due to my superior 
skills, or my heightened awareness of the danger compared to 
the average person who does such things or, far far far more 
likely, the statistically obvious fact that, if people only 
occasionally die, I probably won't if I exercise extreme 
care. My means of death, whenever it may occur, may give 
others some insight into the relative merits of these 
choices. My wife, and more timid friends, see me as 
something of a risk taker, but I only take 'relative risks' 
where there are objectives to be attained - I see it as 
"applied engineering". eg * in the above case, if one or two 
people have died there in the past 5 years and thousands of 
people use it every year, then odds are (but only odds) that 
judicious use of the safety cable, using clip on security 
whenever possible (as at least one walker was doing) would 
probably [tm] allow safe passage. The photo opportunity 
would have to be a rather good one :-).

The ~ ?3 metre? long bridge which he walks briskly I'd 
consider crossing only after the most substantial inquiry as 
to its safety, as, given the state of the rest of the 
walkway, it seems like an excessive invitation to death if 
it's no newer than the rest of the path.



        Russell


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