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[Trestle Bridge Near Fort Harker, Kansas]

Creator

American Photographer · 1821–1882

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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

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Date: 1867
Medium: Albumen silver print
Culture: American
Department: Photographs
Institution: Getty Museum

Following his tour of duty as a Civil War photographer, Alexander Gardner headed west. Construction of a transcontinental railroad became a national priority after the destructive years of war, and Gardner followed its course. He photographed the Eastern Division of the Union Pacific Railroad as it stretched across Kansas from the Missouri River to its junction with the main line at Hays City, Kansas. Small figures punctuate the barely discernible flatbed cars that link the engine and caboose and span the entire length of the trestle bridge. They seem to merge with the bridge itself, transforming the train-and-bridge into a chain pulled taut across the hilly landscape. Additional tiny figures, including a lone man in the near distance who watches the photographer intently, pepper the ground below, as though cast off by the train.

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