[Rondec]

Moonrise over New Orleans



Ship at Sunset (on the Mississippi)



Both shot with the DFA 24-70mm, handheld.

[PenPusher]

New Orleans seems to have recovered well from the hurricane, quite a specular shot.

By a strange coincidence I have a letter in front of me dated 1849, from a long forgotten relative living in Cincinnati, in it he is encouraging his relatives living in Ireland to join him. In the letter he mentions that his brother is a clerk on one of the riverboats and that the best way to get to Cincinnati is to come by New Orleans rather than New York, it took me a while to realise that you could get a river boat all the way from New Orleans right up to Cincinnati and probably beyond. In the letter he lays out the food they would need for the voyage from Ireland to New Orleans, one forgets it was do-it-yourself catering back then, he also says to come in March or April as the Yellow Fever in New Orleans is not that bad at that time.

I am actually amazed that the letter has survived, my family was living in London during the war and were bombed out at least once. Most of the letter is crossed, written first across the page in portrait format as you normally would and then rotated 90 deg and written in the opposite direction - landscape format - so its quite difficult to read and also slightly faded in one or two places, apparently postage was calculated on the number of pages hence the crossing.

[Rondec]

New Orleans seems to have recovered well from the hurricane, quite a specular shot.

By a strange coincidence I have a letter in front of me dated 1849, from a long forgotten relative living in Cincinnati, in it he is encouraging his relatives living in Ireland to join him. In the letter he mentions that his brother is a clerk on one of the riverboats and that the best way to get to Cincinnati is to come by New Orleans rather than New York, it took me a while to realise that you could get a river boat all the way from New Orleans right up to Cincinnati and probably beyond. In the letter he lays out the food they would need for the voyage from Ireland to New Orleans, one forgets it was do-it-yourself catering back then, he also says to come in March or April as the Yellow Fever in New Orleans is not that bad at that time.

I am actually amazed that the letter has survived, my family was living in London during the war and were bombed out at least once. Most of the letter is crossed, written first across the page in portrait format as you normally would and then rotated 90 deg and written in the opposite direction - landscape format - so its quite difficult to read and also slightly faded in one or two places, apparently postage was calculated on the number of pages hence the crossing.

Pretty interesting. You definitely can go up the Mississippi to the Ohio and then over to Cincinnati. I would have thought that by the 1840s there would have been trains and that would make the trip from New York to Cincinnati not as bad, but maybe they were more expensive.

The Mighty Mississippi. (DFA 24-70mm)

[monochrome]

Pretty interesting. You definitely can go up the Mississippi to the Ohio and then over to Cincinnati. I would have thought that by the 1840s there would have been trains and that would make the trip from New York to Cincinnati not as bad, but maybe they were more expensive.

The Mighty Mississippi. (DFA 24-70mm)

In 1840 there was only 2,800 miles of total railroad trackage in the entire country. By 1920 there was 193,000+ miles of interconnected trackage. Most of the 1840 trackage was in the East and South, a little in the Midwest (Ohio was then the Midwest) and West. It was disconnected and not of a standard gauge. (Source American-Rails.com) Travel from New York - Cincinnati would have been by river, canal flatboats, wagon drayage and coach, with no central ‘travel agent’ to plan the trip, and constant unloading and transferring of possessions. Making that trip would have been nearly impossible for an immigrant to arrange, and very dangerous as well.

The Eads Bridge, from whence it appears your photo was taken, was completed in 1874. Prior to the Civil War and certainly not in 1840, there simply wasn’t enough population west of Philadelphia to justify an extensive railroad network, so rivers and canals, riverboats and horse-drawn or poled flatboats served for transportation.

Opening the West post Civil War, generated so much commerce and wealth that railroads made sense. Congress encouraged railroad development by passing the Pacific Railroad Acts of 1862, 1863, 1864 and 1866, The half century from 1870 - 1920 was a period of furious railroad construction to exploit the federal largess, fed by as well as allowing the exploding immigrant population and economic development.

By 1900 St. Louis, the Gateway to the West, was the most populous city west of Philadelphia, and fabulously wealthy for the time. That also set the conditions for St. Louis’ decline, as St. Louis banks had attempted to preserve the (rail and river) transportation bottleneck here. The railroad industry in particular - but everything to do with transportation - was marked by unmitigated, rapacious greed on the part of owners and financiers.

Chicago, courtesy of the 1888 Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe (Chicago, Santa Fe & California) mainline from Kansas City, through the Quad Cities, ‘happened’ as the natural result of St..Louisans ’ shortsightedness.

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Last edited by monochrome; 10-20-2018 at 06:28 AM.

[Rondec]

In 1840 there was only 2,800 miles of total railroad trackage in the entire country. Most of it was in the East and South, a little in the Midwest and West. It was disconnected and not of a standard gauge. (Source American-Rails.com) Travel from New York - Cincinnati would have been canal flatboats, wagon drayage and coach, with no central ‘travel agent’ to plan the trip. Making that trip would have been nearly impossible for an immigrant, ad very dangerous as well.

The Eads Bridge, from whence it appears your photo was taken, was completed in 1874. Prior to the Civil War and certainly not in the mid-19th Century, there simply wasn’t enough population west of Philadelphia to justify an extensive railroad network, so rivers and riverboats served for transportation.

Opening the West post Civil War, generated so much commerce and wealth that railroads made sense. Congress encouraged railroad development by passing the Pacific Railroad Acts of 1862, 1863, 1864 and 1866, The half century from 1860 - 1910 was a period of furious railroad construction to exploit the federal largess, fed by as well as allowing the exploding immigrant population and economic development.

By 1900 St. Louis, the Gateway to the West, was the most populous city west of Philadelphia, and fabulously wealthy for the time. That also set the conditions for St. Louis’ decline, as St. Louis banks attempted to preserve the transportation bottleneck here.

Chicago, courtesy of the 1888 Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe (Chicago, Santa Fe & California) mainline from Kansas City, through the Quad Cities, was the natural result of their shortsightedness.

This is actually the Crescent City Connection in New Orleans, so pretty far south of St. Louis. I was there last week with my family for a conference and got some shots.

[monochrome]

This is actually the Crescent City Connection in New Orleans, so pretty far south of St. Louis. I was there last week with my family for a conference and got some shots.

WOW! Amazing how similar the river fronts look - but now that I see it in context and properly orientedthere aren’t any buildings between the Arch Grounds and the River.

.:

[Rondec]

After Sunset (DFA 24-70mm/Pixel Shift)



Sunrise over the Mississippi (DFA 24-70mm)

[PenPusher]

Travel from New York - Cincinnati would have been by river, canal flatboats, wagon drayage and coach, with no central ‘travel agent’ to plan the trip, and constant unloading and transferring of possessions. Making that trip would have been nearly impossible for an immigrant to arrange, and very dangerous as well.

That tallies with the letter where he says the journey from New York would be troublesome with many changes.

Incidentally two of his nephews later emigrated to the USA and worked as engineers on the railway which crosses from East to West, can't remember the name.

[Rondec]

Boat on the Mississippi. (DFA 24-70mm)

[Rondec]

Gloomy Dawn (DFA 24-70mm/pixel shift)

[Rondec]

Chocolates (DFA 24-70mm)

[Rondec]

Two shots with the DFA 24-70mm and K-1 II.

Glimpse of the Old Dam.



Gloomy Autumn.

[Rondec]

A couple of country road shots with the DFA 24-70mm and pixel shift.

[Rondec]

Autumn Scene (DFA 24-70mm/Pixel Shift)



Country Road (DFA 24-70mm/Pixel Shift)

[Rondec]

Frosty Hillside



Sunrise.



Both shot with the DFA 24-70mm and pixel shift.