[Military railroad operations in northern Virginia: man standing on railroad tracks holding twisted rail] – Vintage Wall Art
![[Military railroad operations in northern Virginia: man standing on railroad tracks holding twisted rail], [1862 or 1863] — historic photograph](https://images.jameslantos.com/img/f9/f9a6f8dadd91-L.webp)
(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: [Military railroad operations in northern Virginia: man standing on railroad tracks holding twisted rail], 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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[Military railroad operations in northern Virginia: man standing on railroad tracks holding twisted rail]
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A man stands on the track holding up a rail that has been bent and twisted out of shape, a stark sign of how much damage wartime lines could take. Northern Virginia changed hands many times between 1861 and 1865, and both armies tore up or wrecked railways to slow their opponents, while Union crews worked to rebuild them so supplies and troops could keep moving. The image is printed on salted paper, an early photographic process that was soon overtaken by albumen and collodion prints, which makes it an early record of wartime transportation. Library staff devised the title, so the exact site and the man's identity are not recorded.
| Created / published | [1862 or 1863] |
|---|---|
| Medium | 1 photographic print : salted paper. |
| Genre | Salted paper prints 1860-1870. |
| Notes | No. 56 (handwritten) and 2557 (stamped) on mount. Title devised by Library staff. Forms part of Civil War photos, military construction and transportation in Northern Virginia and elsewhere / United States Military Railway Department (Library of Congress). |
| Subjects | Railroad tracks--Virginia--1860-1870. United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Destruction & pillage. United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Transportation. |
| Source | Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division |
| Original scan | 1,536 × 1,090 px · prints to 5 × 4 in at 300 dpi |
| Reference | AMZ-SOTP-HPA-161512 |
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