Mr. Flickwir's Tunkhannock Biggie

[NW Mailing List]

I am aware that it is considered importune to post non-N&W stuff on this list, but (1) the Flickwir material has been hospitably received here, (2) Flickwir's money was spent in Roanoke, and (3)  da  Hawss Ray-Road  now runs over this bridge.

http://lists.railfan.net/erielackphoto.cgi?erielack-03-03-17/L019.jpg

This negative scan, released yesterday by Steamtown,  shows Mr. Flickwir's monstrous Tunkhannock Viaduct as it was nearing completion, March 20, 1915.  To capture the whole bridge, photographer Watson Bunnell used a view camera and made an 8" x 22" negative.  Too bad he could not have sent his camera aloft on a drone aircraft !

To put things into perspective, this engineering wonder was built less than 50 years after the Transcontinental Railroad was constructed, when the Central Pacific was blasting the Sierra tunnels with black powder and the Union Pacific was building the massive Dale Creek Viaduct with timbers... every stinkin' bit of it done BY HAND !  Yes, the progress of mankind is largely the progress of his tools.

       -- abram burnett,
>From the Kingdom of Dots-and-Dashes

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