Wall Arch was a natural sandstone arch in the Arches National Park in the U.S. state of Utah. Before its collapse in 2008, it was ranked 12th in size among the park's over 2,000 arches. At its largest, the opening underneath the span was 71 feet (22 m) wide by 33.5 feet (10 m) high. It consisted of Entrada Sandstone, specifically the member known as Slick Rock. Wall Arch was first reported and named in 1948 by Lewis T. McKinney.
Wall Arch collapsed sometime between the night of August 4, 2008, and the morning of August 5, temporarily blocking Devil's Garden Trail. No one observed the fall. It was the first collapse of a major arch in the park since sections of Landscape Arch fell in 1991. Officials from the National Park Service and Utah Geological Survey visited the site of the collapsed sandstone arch on Thursday, August 7, and noted stress fractures in the remaining formation which may cause collapses in the future.
Famous quotes containing the words wall and/or arch:
“The aim of every artist is to arrest motion, which is life, by artificial means and hold it fixed so that a hundred years later, when a stranger looks at it, it moves again since it is life. Since man is mortal, the only immortality possible for him is to leave something behind him that is immortal since it will always move. This is the artist’s way of scribbling “Kilroy was here” on the wall of the final and irrevocable oblivion through which he must someday pass.”
—William Faulkner (1897–1962)
“Thir dread commander: he above the rest
In shape and gesture proudly eminent
Stood like a Towr; his form had yet not lost
All her Original brightness, nor appear’d
Less than Arch Angel ruind, and th’ excess
Of Glory obscur’d: As when the Sun new ris’n
Looks through the Horizontal misty Air
Shorn of his Beams, or from behind the Moon
In dim Eclips disastrous twilight sheds
On half the Nations, and with fear of change
Perplexes Monarchs.”
—John Milton (1608–1674)