3-065-934 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Inundations in the United States: Cumberland River, from the railroad bridge, 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...[This one] represents the waste of waters as viewed from the railway bridge, looking obliquely across and down the river. The row of fence-rails, piled in clumps, marks the line of what are called the 'river banks,' being placed some ten or twelve yards inland from them. But these 'banks,' at low water, are not banks at all, but the brink of the ravine at the bottom of which runs the river. The photographer has, in this picture, managed to represent the turbid, rushing surface of the stream; but its impetuosity is shown by the eddy formed around the pier on the right of the picture. The tree on the left centre is exactly on the edge of the banks, and is expected to succumb to the torrent which is making wild work with its roots'. From "Illustrated London News", 1874.