Antiques

I stumbled across an extraordinary blog consisting of little but very high quality scans of US photos at least a century old. I am happy to report there was a significant number featuring trains.


These images all reward clicking to enalarge.


I suspect most of them were made on very large glass plates, and the crispness of the image -- and level of detail -- is quite extraordinary.


They ooze atmosphere, not least because most of them seem to be depicting the everyday -- here Virginia, way back in 1865:


But big architecture was not entirely neglected, and here's a view of, of course, Pennsylvania Station in 1910, not that long after completion:


There are a few from central and southern America, too -- here an extraordinary scene where the locomotive hugs the cliff as it sprays steam and vapour around it: just look at the men clinging to the cliffside, to the left:


All this steam power came at a price: here the Illinois Steel Works is shrouded in poisonous fug in 1910:


And to finish, let's leave trains behind at look at a modern miracle -- the Golden Gate Bridge, under construction:


I think that blog was a pretty spectacular find. No idea what you're doing here when you could be spending your life over there...