Getty Museum
"Westward The Course of Empire Takes Its Way": Laying Track 600 Miles West of St. Louis, Missouri
Creator
Alexander GardnerAmerican Photographer · 1821–1882
All works by this person →As an idealistic young reporter and newspaper editor in Glasgow, Scotland, Alexander Gardner dreamed of forming a semi-socialistic colony somewhere in what he thought of as the unspoiled wilderness of America. He selected a place in Iowa, but even though he sent family and friends to live there, Gardner never joined them. Instead, when he disembarked in New York he remained. The celebrated America
More on Getty ULAN- Date
- October 19, 1867
- Medium
- Albumen silver print
- Culture
- American
- Department
- Photographs
- Institution
- Getty Museum
On a bleak midwestern prairie, Alexander Gardner photographed workers laying track for the Union Pacific Railroad. A close look at the labor force reveals the cultural diversity of workers employed by the railroad companies, who advertised far and wide for able-bodied, adventurous men. In the foreground, parallel wooden cross-ties are being laid in preparation for the iron track. Once the track was laid, the supply engine in the background could move forward. This ongoing system continued until the Union Pacific reached Promontory Summit, Utah, where it joined the Central Pacific rails that had been laid eastward from Sacramento, California. The meeting of the rails marked the completion of the first transcontinental railroad in the United States.
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