They crossed the Pacific and ran east across America by train. One evening the train stopped. The bridge over Medicine Bow river was damaged and could not carry a train at slow speed. To wait for repairs meant losing a day, and a day meant the whole journey. The engineer had an idea. "If we go over it at full speed," he said, "we may have a chance." The passengers agreed at once, as Americans do. The train drew back a mile, then came on with a terrible roar. It flew over the bridge from bank to bank; the carriages seemed to leap across the water, and the wheels did not touch the middle at all. And when the last carriage was over, the bridge fell with a crash into the river below. Passepartout shut his eyes and did not open them until it was done. Phileas Fogg looked at his watch and wrote a line in his notebook.