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[Cape Horn, C.P.R.R.]
| Content Provider | Getty: Museum Collection |
|---|---|
| Artist | Carleton Watkins |
| Temporal Coverage | about 1878–1885 |
| Description | In 1862 an Indiana state representative observed that the transcontinental railway " . . . could never be constructed on terms applicable to ordinary roads . . . It is to be constructed through almost impassible mountains, deep ravines, canyons, gorges, and over arid and sandy plains . . . " This photograph of the American River's precipitous canyon illustrates the accuracy of those words. A team of nearly seven thousand men, mostly Chinese, was required to blast and cut the curving roadbed along this three-mile path. To place the blasting powder and light the fuses, men were lowered in chairs or baskets, after which they yelled to a man above to haul them up. Hugging the Cape Horn mountainside, this train paused momentarily with a number of brave men standing on top of its boxcars, overlooking the cavernous gorge some twelve to twenty-two hundred feet below. Trains passing through Cape Horn often stopped so tourists could get out of their cars and gaze at this awe-inspiring gorge and grade. |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Rights License | http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ |
| Subject Keyword | Getty Museum collections artworks art works art history interpretation of art Getty art collections Getty Getty exhibits Getty Museum exhibits los angeles collections antiquities decorative arts sculpture manuscripts photography paintings drawings visual artwork creative work |
| Content Type | Image |
| Resource Type | Photograph |
| Object Type | Photographs |
