Bridge on Orange and Alexandria Rail Road, as Repaired by Army Engineers under Colonel Herman Haupt

Former Attribution Formerly attributed to Mathew B. Brady American, born Ireland
1865
Not on view
This view by Russell documents the engine Fire Fly testing the stability of a new wooden trestle bridge built quickly by the United States Military Railroad engineers to replace a masonry bridge destroyed by the Confederates. Atop the box car trailing the engine is a pair of armed sentries; others are on the rail tracks and bridge foundation. The top-hatted figure in the foreground is unidentified, but he may be the photographer himself or a civilian railroad engineer working for General Herman Haupt, commander of the United States Military Railroad. President Abraham Lincoln was so impressed with Haupt’s work that on May 28, 1862, he observed: “That man Haupt has built a bridge four hundred feet long and one hundred feet high, across Potomac Creek, on which loaded trains are passing every hour, and upon my word, gentlemen, there is nothing in it but cornstalks and beanpoles.”

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Bridge on Orange and Alexandria Rail Road, as Repaired by Army Engineers under Colonel Herman Haupt
  • Artist: Andrew Joseph Russell (American, 1830–1902)
  • Former Attribution: Formerly attributed to Mathew B. Brady (American, born Ireland, 1823?–1896 New York)
  • Date: 1865
  • Medium: Albumen silver print from glass negative
  • Classification: Photographs
  • Credit Line: Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1933
  • Object Number: 33.65.278
  • Curatorial Department: Photographs

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