Named after Lieutenant Zebulon Pike, it stands alone at the eastern front of Colorado's mountain ranges. It's size and location attracted everyone who laid eyes on it. Pikes Peak was the icon of the American West.
The Manitou and Pikes Peak Railway, is a Cog Railway, also known as a Rack Railway, which climbs steep grades by using a gear-like wheel, the cog, to engage teeth in a centre rail. The technology was developed in Switzerland, but both the first and highest Cog Railway would be constructed in the US.
This railway uses the Abt Rack System to climb as much as 25 feet for every 100 feet it moves forward. It's the highest Cog Railroad in the world, reaching 14110 feet, and has the largest elevation gain of 7500 feet.
Katharine Lee Bates, was an English Teacher in Massachusetts from 1885-1925. She, and several fellow Teachers, made the trek up Pikes Peak by wagon in the Summer of 1893. So inspired by the view, she immortalized it in the poem "America the Beautiful" which was first published in 1895. She rewrote that poem again in 1904, and again in 1913. It was set to music many times, but lost it's bid to become the National Anthem to the older "The Star-Spangled Banner" on March 3, 1931.
