Set of 39 HISTORICAL PHOTOS of TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD Alfred A. Hart (1860s)

Description: This SET of 39 PHOTOS was made in 1969 by the Oakland Museum staff for the TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD GOLD SPIKE CENTENNIAL exhibition of photos taken by the official railroad photographer ALFRED A. HART in the 1860s. (38) 8x10 photo paper w/1/4" margin, and (1) 4-1/4"x7-5/8" photo with 1/4" margin. Not digitally enhanced (that technology was not available in 1969). This series is from the Central Pacific Railroad between Sacramento and Nevada, with a few from Utah. Would make a fun & affordable exhibit for a restaurant, hotel, or attraction located along I-80, or a personal gallery wall for western history or rail fans, or a small or mom & pop museum or school, with a focus on the construction of the railroad crossing of the Sierra Nevada in California and Nevada. Ample information about the Transcontinental railroad and photographs online but I've provided a small summary below the list of photos. (if you're not a history buff, the building of the Transcontinental Railroad in the 1860s was brought to life in the television series "Hell on Wheels") $199 works out to $5.10 per photo, almost $10 less than current Ebay prices for new photo prints. But this is a vintage set from 1969, part of a press-kit, and the back of each image has the photo caption typewritten in 1969 by the Oakland Museum staff taped to the back of the photo. The captions have a charm of their own (see example in last image). Tags: Western North American History; Railroad History; Golden Spike Centennial; Railfans; Central Pacific Railroad; Transcontinental Railroad; Alfred A. Hart; Americana; Hell on Wheels. This subset of images from the Alfred Hart collection focuses on images of the construction of the Central Pacific Railroad (CPRR) crossing of the Sierra Nevada, from Sacramento to the Donner Summit, and into Nevada. About the Photographer, Alfred A. Hart: Alfred A. Hart (1816–1908) was a 19th-centuryAmerican photographer for the Central Pacific Railroad. Hart was the official photographer of the western half of the first transcontinental railroad, for which he took 364 historic stereo views of the railroad construction in the 1860s. Currently, it's only available as a set. The set includes these images: Note: Photo numbers below refer to the order in which the photos are attached to the Ebay listing. If no number, it wasn't attached due to Ebay's 24 image limit; try a google search "Alfred Hart photo + [photo description]" or email me for scans of the remaining images so you can see condition, which is similar to those attached to this ad. 25 Images from the crossing of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California (a few near the CA-NV border):1. Sierra Summit snow sheds, Native American workers -- First major Sierra barrier 34 mi. from Sacramento15. Excursion train, American River at Green Bluffs 71 mi. from Sacramento16. Teamsters hauling supplies over the Dutch Flat-Donner Pass wagon road -- Chinese workers at Heath's Ravine 82 mi. from Sacramento14. Chinese workers at Sailor's Spur 80 mi. from Sacramento18. Clipper Gap Trestle 44 mi. from Sacramento13. One-horse dump carts at Gold Run, July 1866 -- Trestle near Auburn, 36 mi. from Sacramento3. Snowplows near Cisco, 92 mi. from Sacramento -- Oblique view of Clipper Gap Trestle 44 mi. from Sacramento17. C.P. Huntington Locomotive at Cape Horn 57 mi. from Sacramento -- One-horse dump carts at Gold Run, July 186619. Dixie Cut, Gold Run, Chinese laborers, 63 mi. from Sacramento -- Long Ravine Bridge near Colfax, 56 mi. from Sacramento -- Another view of Long Ravine Bridge, 56 mi from Sacramento -- Secret Town Trestle, near Colfax, 62 mi from Sacramento20. Chinese workers at Secret Town Trestle, 62 mi. from Sacramento22. Framing of snow shed near Emigrant gap, 84 mi. from Sacramento -- Excursionists overlooking Donner Lake near Sierra summit, 1867 -- First crossing of Truckee River, 132 mi. from Sacramento21. Third crossing of Truckee River after construction, 1868 -- Covered bridge, Truckee River, 141 mi. from Sacramento4. Bucker snow plows near Donner Summit, 186710. Winter 1889-90, snow shed 112 mi. from Sacramento(5) images near Sacramento, California: -- Central Pacific's first CPs locomotive, the "Gov. Stanford", at Sacramento railroad yard -- C.P. Huntington Locomotive at bridge over American River Crossing 2. "Gov. Stanford" locomotive at Sacramento23. Sacramento, view toward river, 1865 -- American River trestle crossing near Sacramento (9) images in Nevada & Utah:5. Humboldt desert, Nevada, 1868 (margins trimmed, unevenly)9. Brown's Station, 234 mi. from Sacramento (margins trimmed, unevenly) -- Survey crew in Nevada11. C.P. locomotive "Jupiter" and Promontory tents, 690 mi. from Sacramento (tape on upper edge) 12. Water arrives for crews in the Nevada desert8. Native Americans on platform near Reno,1868, 154 mi. from Sacramento (margins trimmed, unevenly)7. Chinese worker camp between Nevada and Utah, 18686. Meeting of east & west, Gold Spike celebration, 1869 -- Humboldt River, Nevada Palisades, 432 mi from Sacramento About the Transcontinental Railroad: In 1862, the Pacific Railroad Act chartered the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific Railroad Companies, tasking them with building a transcontinental railroad that would link the United States from east to west. Over the next seven years, the two companies would race toward each other from Sacramento, California on the one side to Omaha, Nebraska on the other, struggling against great risks before they met at Promontory, Utah, on May 10,1869. The overland journey – across mountains, plains, rivers and deserts – was risky and difficult, and many westward migrants instead chose to travel by sea, taking the six-month route around Cape Horn at the tip of South America, or risking yellow fever and other diseases by crossing the Isthmus of Panama and traveling via ship to San Francisco. The Pacific Railroad Act stipulated that the Central Pacific Railroad Company would start building in Sacramento and continue east across the Sierra Nevada, while a second company, the Union Pacific Railroad, would build westward from the Missouri River, near the Iowa-Nebraska border. The two lines of track would meet in the middle and each company would receive 6,400 acres of land (later doubled to 12,800) and $48,000 in government bonds for every mile of track built. The race was on! (This competition brought to life in the 2011 American western T.V. series “Hell on Wheels”.) Ramshackle settlements popped up wherever the railroad went, turning into hotbeds of drinking, gambling, prostitution and violence. The Union Pacific moved relatively quickly across the plains, compared to the slow progress of their rival company through the rugged terrain and heavy snow of the Sierra Nevada mountains, east of Sacramento, CA. The first Winter of the mountain tunnel construction, 1866, there were 44 storms and 60 feet of snow fell. Even before the railroad was completed in 1869, the builders started building snow sheds to protect the track and eventually 40 miles of snow sheds were built. The snow sheds became an iconic symbol of Donner Summit. To remove the snow on the tracks the railroad used Bucker plows. They were huge, up to 40,000 pounds, and would be pushed by up to 10 locomotives. A bucker plow could charge into drifts at up to 60 miles an hour, but the snow, the “Sierra Cement,” would still stop it cold. The plow would then back up (assuming it had not become stuck), go forward gaining speed, and smash into the snow again. Eventually the track would be cleared. In 1865, after struggling with retaining workers due to the difficulty of the labor, Charles Crocker (who was in charge of construction for the Central Pacific) began hiring Chinese laborers. The Chinese laborers proved to be tireless workers; some 14,000 were toiling under brutal working conditions in the Sierra Nevada by early 1867. To blast through the mountains, the Central Pacific built huge wooden trestles on the western slopes and used gunpowder and nitroglycerine to blast tunnels through the granite.

Price: 139.3 USD

Location: Nevada City, California

End Time: 2025-01-17T21:47:28.000Z

Shipping Cost: 0 USD