Building the Bridge over the Mississippi at Fort Madison, Iowa in 1887

Background: In 1886, the City Council oc Fort Madison, Iowa passed an ordinance to allow the Chicago, Santa Fe and California Railroad to build in Iowa. A cropped version of this photo is shown in The History of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe by Pamela Berkman, 1988 Bompton Books, Corp. pages 8 & 9. The white patch appears to be snow, which would imply that we are looking south from the western bank of the river. The engine number is 540.

Details

Locomotive with Engineer and Fireman posing, Santa Fe tender.

Men standing on flatcar.

Town in background on left,

What looks like snow patch. Is it? Or is it NOT

Date: Tue, 07 May 2002 09:39:24 -0700
From: "Vincent Pollmeier" <vmp@quinnemanuel.com>

I was looking at the photo on your web site and had a few comments.

The white patch is almost certainly not snow, but more likely damage to the photograph.
My reasons for this are as follows:

1) The photo was taken from the Illinois side of the river. The church steeple in the background left is that of St. Joseph Catholic Church in Fort Madison and the bluff to its right behind the buildings is recognizable as the bluff that now rises above the Iowa State Penitentiary.

2) The Mississippi River in Fort Madison does not flow north-to-south, but east-to-west. There for the white spot is on the west side of an embankment that is running approximately north-south. The orientation of the photo is that we are looking approximately north-northeast.

I hope this is helpful

&hibar;
Vincent Pollmeier
vpollmeier@earthlink.net

Subject: FT MADISON SHOT
Date: Mon, 4 May 1998 01:31:43 EDT
From: HONDO4ATSF <HONDO4ATSF@aol.com>

I WOULD THINK THAT SINCE THE OTHER SHOTS OF THIS PICTURE DON'T SHOW SNOW AND IT ACTUALLY LOOKS LIKE A TORN OLD PICTURE AS THOSE ONES OF FAMILY. THE BUILDINGS ON THE OTHER BANK IS SHOPTON, OR FT. MADISON IF YOU WANT. SINCERLY,
STEVE PARKES HONDO4ATSF@AOL.COM