3-065-932 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Inundations in the United States: railroad bridge, Clarksville, Tennessee, 1874. 'The swelling and overflow of the Cumberland river, a month ago, presented an extraordinary spectacle...We are indebted to Dr. D. F. Wright, of that town, and to his neighbour, Mr. M'Cormac, the skilful photographer, for the four views shown in our Engravings...Readers can form no conception of the enormous excess in the bulk of water now hurried from this point to augment the already overloaded Mississippi. They must study attentively the views we give them, and imagine the immense difference between these and the aspect of the same parts when viewed at low water. For this purpose turn to our Illustration No. 1, representing the bridge of the Louisville, Clarkesville, and Memphis railroad from above. A structure of wood and iron is here seen rising from a foundation of stone piers just visible above the water. Seen at low water, this bridge is perched on stone piers 80 ft. high, around whose base brawls the Cumberland, an unnavigable stream, perhaps sixty yards wide. The difference of level as marked on this bridge between the present stage of water and the low stage of last August is 63 ft'. From "Illustrated London News", 1874.