Details

Collection Summary
Collection: D - D Collection
Folder: 0000.000
Item: 0714-00001
Title: Across the Missouri River By Rail at Bismarck (D.T.)
Date: 1879
Creator: Haynes, F. Jay--(Frank Jay),--1853-1921
Inscription/Marks: [caption below wood cut print] Across the Missouri River By Rail, at Bismarck Dakota Territory From a photograph by F. Jay Hayes. [Article] ACROSS THE MISSOURI BY RAIL. On the 12th of Feburary the first locomotive and train of the Northern Pacific crossed over the Missouri River west from Bismarck. Our sketch on page 205 faithfully outlines the cold wintry job. The thermometer was ten degrees below zero, and the ice bridge spanning the "Big Muddy" from thirty-six to forty-two inches thick. The iron rails were placed upon twelve-food ties, twelve inches wide, with three-feet centres, and resting directly upon the ice. Chief Engineer Rosser tested the ice by loading fifty tons of earth upon a space twenty feet square. The ice gave way during the night, the earth cutting out a piece exactly conforming to the line of the base of the pile. General Rosser accepted this evidence of the strength of the ice as satisfactory, and contrary to all precedent in railroad building in the United States, constructed his track upon the frozen surface of the river. The track is perfectly level, and the rails are thirty feet long. Trains are not permitted to remain standing upon the track. The motion of the train is favorable to the experiment, which may be regarded as an engineering success. The Northern Pacific is in course of construction one hundred miles west from Bismarck, and the engineers are using this method of transportating the materials across the river before the ice breaks up. [In pencil below article] Original Woodcut 1879.
Summary: Men are constructing a railroad track on top of the ice of the Missouri River.||During the winter of 1879, the Northern Pacific Railroad laid tracks on the ice to move equipment and supplies to the west bank of the Missouri. Original clipping from Harper's Weekly and article attached to tag board showing rails for train laid across Missouri River ice to provide passage from Mandan to Bismarck Dakota Territory. Wood cut illustration is based on a photograph taken by Northern Pacific Railway photographer F. Jay Haynes. Original wood cut E0633-00001 donated by Mrs. Cora McDeritt Wilson on July 24, 1984, Original Accession # 84AV019 with eight other wood cut prints and Dakota maps.
Red ID: PH_I_88796 Image ID: 43702 Image Notes: D0714-00001

Collection: D Digitized Images from Collection
Title: D Collection
Date: circa 1874-circa 1960

Summary: At some point in time the State Historical Society separated photographs into collections by size. The A collection consists of items 4 X 5” or less, the B collection consists of items 5 X 7” or less, the C collection consists of items 8 X 10” or less, the D collection consists of items 11 X 14” or less, and the E collection consists of items larger than 11 X 14”.

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