Cut Bank Creek Viaduct — Pendergrass Road

Pendergrass Road runs along the west rim of the Cut Bank Creek gorge, just north of U.S. 2 on the western edge of Cut Bank. The standing point is on the road shoulder about 130 m (430 ft) from the west end of the viaduct, and the steel structure runs away from you to the east-north-east across the gorge, its middle about 220 m (720 ft) away at a bearing of roughly 110 degrees. It is a three-quarter view along the north side of the bridge, not a side-on profile. The line is single-track here; trains heading for Cut Bank station, about a mile to the east, cross the gorge high above the creek, and westbound trains come toward you off the bridge onto the fill. Amtrak's Empire Builder crosses once a day in each direction; the rest is BNSF freight, including grain in season. There is no formal overlook: pull fully off the road and stand back from the rim.

Open high plains cut by the steep, eroded walls of Cut Bank Creek, a gorge about 150 ft (46 m) deep according to Wikipedia. The viaduct, a steel structure about 1,200 ft (366 m) long, is the only tall object on the skyline, with the town of Cut Bank beyond it to the east. Wind is almost constant, and there is little to break it on the rim.

The Great Northern Railway built its line across northern Montana toward Marias Pass and the Pacific in the early 1890s, and the Cut Bank Creek crossing is part of that main line. The present steel viaduct replaced an earlier timber trestle; sources give 1899 or 1900 for the steel structure. Today it is BNSF's Hi Line Subdivision, and it still carries Amtrak's Empire Builder, which calls at the former Great Northern depot in Cut Bank.

A steel viaduct over a prairie gorge whose steep eroded walls gave the creek and the town their name, and a public road on the rim from which Amtrak's Empire Builder and a steady stream of freight can be watched high above the creek.