Debris at P.R.R. stone bridge, Johnstown Flood, May 31st, 1889 – Vintage Print
(Originally scanned by the Library of Congress. Each image is professionally and digitally cleaned of artifacts such as color bars and extra borders prior to printing.)
Description
A window into the past: Debris at P.R.R. stone bridge, Johnstown Flood, May 31st, 1889, preserved in this historic photograph. An authentic image from the Library of Congress, it carries the weight of the real historical record.
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Debris at P.R.R. stone bridge, Johnstown Flood, May 31st, 1889
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The stone arch of the Pennsylvania Railroad bridge at Johnstown is the detail that sets this view apart. On May 31, 1889, the flood that followed the failure of the South Fork dam swept through the Conemaugh Valley, and the bridge caught a tangle of houses, rail cars, lumber, and other wreckage that piled against its arches. Pittsburgh photographer Histed made the picture around 1889, when the scene was still fresh. The jammed debris shows how much of the town was carried downstream in a few hours, and it remains one of the most widely circulated images of the disaster, which killed more than 2,000 people.
| Created / published | c1889. |
|---|---|
| Medium | 1 photographic print. |
| Genre | Photographic prints 1880-1890. |
| Notes | 17832U U.S. Copyright Office. Photographed and copyright by Histed, Pittsburgh, Pa. |
| Subjects | Floods--Pennsylvania--Johnstown--1880-1890. Bridges--Pennsylvania--Johnstown--1880-1890. Railroads--Pennsylvania--Johnstown--1880-1890. Disasters--Pennsylvania--Johnstown--1880-1890. |
| Source | Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division |
| Original scan | 7,362 × 6,156 px · prints to 25 × 21 in at 300 dpi |
| Reference | tif17535_DebrisatPRRstonebridgeJohnstow |
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