Sign up to receive email notices of recent acquisitions.

[Utah, 1869] Albumen print, 9.25” x 11.75”, on original paperboard mount with title in pencil on mount below image. CONDITION: Very good, strong tonality, minor distortion to photo in bottom-left corner, specs of staining at bottom-middle of image; mark at left margin, two small spots at upper margin, a few minor specs along margins.

A beautiful image showing the temporary trestle known as Devil's Gate Bridge which crossed the Weber River in Utah.

The Union Pacific Railroad’s line in Weber Canyon and Echo Canyon was the obvious choice when the initial surveys were made in 1864 and 1865. Its downward course along Echo Creek and the Weber River was steady and sustained, with only one stretch of white water, at a gorge called Devil’s Gate, called so because of the difficulty travelers had passing through it. The canyon was seen as the way west for California-bound immigrant wagons in 1846. In 1868, Brigham Young contracted with Union Pacific to build part of the transcontinental railroad though Weber Canyon as well as Echo Canyon. Completion of the UP in May of 1869—the nation’s first transcontinental railroad—stimulated growth in Weber County. The period of rapid construction of the UP made for some barely adequate bridges such as the somewhat temporary crossing of the Weber River at Devil's Gate. Quick construction had seen the installation of a very simple trestle that reportedly had a frightening sway as trains moved over it. A deluge of waters from a springtime storm in May 1869 damaged some of the supports, stranding a trainload of UP dignitaries on their way to the golden spike ceremony—the necessity of rebuilding the bridge delaying the ceremonies for two days. Repairs were made and they were able to make their way west. 

The completion of a new bridge replacing the bridge pictured here was the reason for Andrew Russell being called back in the fall to record the testing of the sturdier wooden truss bridge that replaced the original trestle. Russell’s second photo shows three fully loaded engines and tenders atop the permanent bridge, proving its ability to hold any projected load. A new single-track steel bridge was installed at Devil’s Gate in 1899.

Born in New Hampshire, Andrew J. Russell (1830–1902) became a photographer during the Civil War, and in 1863 was appointed government photographer. To encourage settlement and investment in the West after the war, the vice president of the Union Pacific Railroad Thomas Durant commissioned Russell to document the construction of the transcontinental railroad. During 1868 Russell lived in construction camps and sent his negatives east for printing. He returned to New York later that year and in 1869 published The Great West Illustrated (New York: The Union Pacific Railroad Co.). On his second trip out west, he photographed Omaha and a number of growing Nebraska towns on his way to the joining of the rails at Promontory, Utah in 1869. Thousands of readers of Frank Leslie’s Illustrated viewed his images of the ceremony, including his iconic shot, “Joining of the Rails.” Following this event, Russell traveled to California and then returned to New York in late 1869, where he established the Decoration and Designing Co. and worked as a photojournalist for Frank Leslie. He died in Brooklyn in 1902. Illuminating important themes in U.S. history, Russell’s work brought the railroad and the West to a mass audience—capturing the grand scale of western lands, railroad construction, frontier boom towns, as well as the effects of the railroads on Native Americans.

REFERENCES: Russell, Andrew J. The Great West Illustrated in a Series of Photographic Views Across the Continent Taken Along the Line of the Union Pacific Railroad, West from Omaha, Nebraska (New York: The Union Pacific Railroad Co., 1869); Roberts, Richard C., Richard W. Sadler. A History of Weber County (Salt Lake City, Utah: Utah Centennial County History Series, 1997), pp. 116-117; Andrew J. Russell at Collections of the Museum of California online; “Russell, Andrew J. (1829–1902),” Encyclopedia of the Great Plains, ed. Wishart, David J., at University of Nebraska-Lincoln online; “Eastbound To Wahsatch: Union Pacific's Route Through Weber and Echo Canyons” at Utah Rails online.

Item #8079

Price: $2,750.00