Description: Sailors Ravine, The Trestle Bridge at Long Ravine, 878 feet long, and 120 feet high, Central Pacific Railroad. For details, see Topozone Sailor Ravine. (Near Blue Canyon.)
Notes: Original image is 18.8 MB. Also see Alfred Hart collection, image no 90., circa 1862-1869. See Sailor's Spur 80 miles from Sacramento. According to book Makin' Tracks, 1975 by Mayer & Vose, p. 29 is photo from Southern Pacific Railroad taken in 1866 at Secrettown Trestle, 62 miles from Sacramento on the western slope of the Sierra. Scrapers had not yet replaced hand labor for grading. Dynamite had been invested but was not in general use. The Chinese worked with picks and shovels, chisels, and hammers, wheelbarrows, and one-horse dump carts. See also Glenn Willumson book, Iron Muse (UC Press Berkeley 2013), p. 124 as referenced in Illustrated London News, 1/11/1868, p. 37. Also see George E. Gruell book, p. 48, Fire in Sierra Nevada Forests, which says this is Secrettown Railroad trestle in Placer County and is a Carleton E. Watkins image. See Watkins new series of Pacific Coast Views, courtesy of The Society of California Pioneers. Images like these were taken with huge 18 x 22 plates which makes enlarging them today crisp and revealing.
Rights:
Identifier: TRR0003
Serial Number: 841
Donation: Trains - Construction, Locomotives, Fire (TRR) collection (#10)
