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- [Cyanotype Photographs Documenting Construction of the Rulo Bridge Over the Missouri River]
[Cyanotype Photographs Documenting Construction of the Rulo Bridge Over the Missouri River]
[Cyanotype Photographs Documenting Construction of the Rulo Bridge Over the Missouri River]
25 original photographs documenting construction of the Rulo Bridge, an iron and stone rail bridge built by the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad to span the Missouri River near Rulo, Nebraska at the Nebraska-Missouri border. Photographs dated in the negative from about May 1886 to May 1888.
Plans for a bridge over the Missouri near this location began as early as 1880, as a lower compliment to the crossing at Plattsmouth, Nebraska completed that year. Rulo was selected as a favorable site shortly thereafter and a June 18, 1884 Congressional Act authorized construction and a corresponding contract with the War Department.
Early news reports on its planning and construction suggest that it replaced a temporary structure which had been erected sometime prior to 1885. The bridge was designed by George S. Morison to be the largest bridge over the Missouri at the time.
News reports suggest construction haltingly began during the winter of 1885 and ramped up to full speed beginning in the Spring of 1886, when dates to the present images begin. These reports are confirmed by Morison’s extensive and highly technical 1890 report (of 30pp. plus 22 illustrated plates) to C.B.&Q. president, Charles E. Perkins tiled THE RULO BRIDGE […] , which notes:
“The last span of the bridge was swung September 24, 1887, and on the afternoon of October 2d the first locomotive crossed the bridge, and it was opened to traffic immediately thereafter.”
The bridge was rebuilt in 1977 on its original piers and remains in use to this day by the BNSF Railway.
Some similar images of construction appear to be part of the George S. Morison Collection at the Smithsonian’s American History Museum and a handful of libraries hold the previously mentioned printed final report on construction, otherwise surviving material, particularly anything primary or photographic, from this Rulo Bridge project appears scarce with this group enduring as a remarkable and evocative survivor of 19th Century railroad bridge construction west of the Mississippi.
[Railroadiana] : [Photography]. [Cyanotype Photographs Documenting Construction of the Rulo Bridge Over the Missouri River]. [Rulo, Nebraska]: [ca. 1886-1888]. 25 cyanotype print photographs. Each about 7" x 4 1/2" (with some slight variation in size between prints) on plain paper. One print with a "DARTMOUTH" watermark visible at verso. All very good.
25 original photographs documenting construction of the Rulo Bridge, an iron and stone rail bridge built by the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad to span the Missouri River near Rulo, Nebraska at the Nebraska-Missouri border. Photographs dated in the negative from about May 1886 to May 1888.
Plans for a bridge over the Missouri near this location began as early as 1880, as a lower compliment to the crossing at Plattsmouth, Nebraska completed that year. Rulo was selected as a favorable site shortly thereafter and a June 18, 1884 Congressional Act authorized construction and a corresponding contract with the War Department.
Early news reports on its planning and construction suggest that it replaced a temporary structure which had been erected sometime prior to 1885. The bridge was designed by George S. Morison to be the largest bridge over the Missouri at the time.
News reports suggest construction haltingly began during the winter of 1885 and ramped up to full speed beginning in the Spring of 1886, when dates to the present images begin. These reports are confirmed by Morison’s extensive and highly technical 1890 report (of 30pp. plus 22 illustrated plates) to C.B.&Q. president, Charles E. Perkins tiled THE RULO BRIDGE […] , which notes:
“The last span of the bridge was swung September 24, 1887, and on the afternoon of October 2d the first locomotive crossed the bridge, and it was opened to traffic immediately thereafter.”
The bridge was rebuilt in 1977 on its original piers and remains in use to this day by the BNSF Railway.
Some similar images of construction appear to be part of the George S. Morison Collection at the Smithsonian’s American History Museum and a handful of libraries hold the previously mentioned printed final report on construction, otherwise surviving material, particularly anything primary or photographic, from this Rulo Bridge project appears scarce with this group enduring as a remarkable and evocative survivor of 19th Century railroad bridge construction west of the Mississippi.
[Railroadiana] : [Photography]. [Cyanotype Photographs Documenting Construction of the Rulo Bridge Over the Missouri River]. [Rulo, Nebraska]: [ca. 1886-1888]. 25 cyanotype print photographs. Each about 7" x 4 1/2" (with some slight variation in size between prints) on plain paper. One print with a "DARTMOUTH" watermark visible at verso. All very good.