Getty Museum
Rounding Cape Horn. Road to Iowa Hill from the river, in the distance.
Creator
Alfred A. HartAmerican Photographer · 1816–1908
All works by this person →As official photographer of the Central Pacific Railroad, Alfred A. Hart spent five years documenting the construction of this legendary railroad from Sacramento, California, to Promontory Summit, Utah. Between 1864 and 1869, Hart accompanied the engineers and crews as they made their way across valleys, deserts, and mountains, building trestles, digging tunnels, and constructing enormous embankme
More on Getty ULAN- Date
- 1866–1869
- Medium
- Albumen silver print
- Culture
- American
- Department
- Photographs
- Institution
- Getty Museum
Alfred A. Hart courageously positioned himself atop a steam engine to make this stereograph overlooking Cape Horn and the American River gorge in the Sierra Nevada mountains. The tracks along this section of the Central Pacific Railroad, which are between twelve and twenty-two hundred feet above the bottom of the gorge, hug the steep mountainside, providing a thrilling experience for train passengers. Breathtaking views of the wilderness landscape added to the tourists' exhilaration. Cape Horn was a popular subject for photographers, who sold their images to the railroad, as well as to tourists who wanted souvenirs. After Hart's negatives became the property of the Central Pacific Railroad, other company photographers, including Carleton E. Watkins, subsequently printed them and failed to properly credit Hart. Watkins made numerous fine photographs of Cape Horn himself; he printed Hart's image sometime around 1870.
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