Chemin de fer de Toulouse à Bayonne. Pont de l'Aran (en trois arches de 17m d'ouverture chacune). Situation des travaux au 21 juillet 1861

1861

Chemin de fer de Toulouse à Bayonne. Pont de l'Aran (en trois arches de 17m d'ouverture chacune). Situation des travaux au 21 juillet 1861, 1861. Édouard Baldus (French, 1813–1889). Albumen print from collodion negative; image: 31.1 x 43.2 cm (12 1/4 x 17 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Michael Mattis and Judith Hochberg 2021.55 Edouard Baldus, the most important French 19th-century architectural photographer, here reveals the process of constructing a bridge. In 1861 he was commissioned by the railway company that owned the principal route across southwest France to document the region’s landscape, towns, monuments, and railroad structures such as bridges and viaducts. The rise of photography coincided with the creation of the railroads and the modernization of France.