Often overlooked is the amount of supplies (chemicals, pans, tables, paper, etc) Jackson had to pack into remote, road-less terrain in order to develop his pictures. Add to that the 18 x 22 inch mammoth camera he used. There was no aperture, so he had to guess the exposure, which ranged from five seconds to 20 minutes! The first photo is of Pueblo Laguna in New Mexico and is dated 1883 .  It is one of the few pictures of Jackson with  his giant camera. (Click to enlarge.)

Split Mountain, Wyoming 1870

Pikes Peak Ave., Colorado Springs, CO. 1885

Washington-Hariver Bridge Hudson River, N.Y. 1890

Washington Monument, Baltimore, MA. 1902

William Henry Jackson was one of America’s premier photographers and painters in the 19th century. He was born in 1843 in Keeseville NY. In 1869 he was assigned by the Union Pacific RR to photograph scenery in the West to help the railroad with its expansion program. In 1870 he joined the famed Hayden Expedition to bring back photos which, along with Thomas Moran’s paintings, would be used to help Congress establish Yellowstone as the first national park in 1871. He went on to photograph iconic landscapes of the West (see May 2014) as well as cityscapes both domestically and internationally. Examples of his U.S. sites are:

Catalina Island CA. 1905

Colorado Midland RR Tunnel 1888

Eureka CO. ca.1900

Jamestown Island church 1902

Library of Congress, Washington DC, late 1800s

Key West is both an island and a city in the Florida Keys at the southern tip of the longest north/south road in the U.S. The city’s main street is Duval St., 1.1 miles long. Located on it is the famous  Sloppy Joe’s Bar. Sloppy Joe’s opened the day after Prohibition was repealed, December 5, 1933. The owner was a good friend of Ernest Hemingway who gave the bar its name . In 1937, it moved across the street to its present location, which was built in 1917. The first photo is dated 1938.

Also on Duval St. is the old armory building, which was built in 1901 and is seen here in a 1902 photo. The building is now an artists’ community.

There are many other attractions too numerous to mention here, but some of the most popular are:

The old Island City National Bank building, which was built in 1901. The Bank opened in 1914 and was the main developer of Duval St. The building is now a restaurant and bar that opened in March 2019. The first photo is undated.

The Custom House. This building opened in 1891 as a custom house, post office, and court house. It sat abandoned for 20 years and then was purchased by the State of Florida in 1991. The state then leased the building to the Key West Art and Historical Society. The first photo is dated 1900.

The southernmost house in the U.S. It was built in 1897 and was the first to have electricity in Key West, thanks to a friend–Thomas Edison. It was a speakeasy in the 30s, a night club in the 40s, and now is a B&B. The first photo is undated.

The Hemingway House. This residence was built in 1851 and was occupied by Ernest Hemingway from 1931-39. It is a landmark and major tourist attraction with six- and seven-toed descendants of Hemingway’s original cats. Oddly, it sits just 16 feet above sea level yet is the second highest point on the island! The first photo is dated 1934 and the last one shows the current owner.

Mary’s Rock Tunnel is located on Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park, VA. Six hundred feet of solid granite had to be drilled, blasted, and cleared. The work was completed in 1932. The first photo is dated 1932.

The 650-foot Sepulveda Tunnel is located near Los Angeles. It was built to join the West San Fernando Valley to the L.A. Basin. The first photo shows the first group coming through the tunnel on dedication day Sept. 27, 1930.

The Merrimac Ferry is a cable ferry operating 24/7,  providing free service to Rt 113 travelers wishing to connect between Columbia and Saulk Counties Wisconsin. A one-way trip takes about 7 minutes. The ferry can handle about 1,200 cars per day, so this is perfect for people traveling this way, while if you still don’t have a car to travel, A car loan is a fairly simple solution to fix this. Private ferry operations began in 1844, but the state of Wisconsin took over in 1933. The first photo is dated 1910 and the second is undated.

The Million Dollar Highway in western Colorado, named for the high gold and silver content in the mountains, was originally built in the 1880s as a toll road. It was rebuilt in 1924 and still provides 25 miles of spectacular views of the Durango-Silverton area of Colorado. The first photo is undated.

Going to the Sun Road is located in Glacier National Park. It was started in 1921 but not finished until 1932. Its 50 miles spans the width of the Park, which is normally open between June and October. Snow depths can reach 50 feet at Logan Pass, the highest point, and it can take as much as 10 weeks to clear the snow at 4,000 tons per hour! The first photo is undated.

The Fayette Winslow Tunnel was built in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas in 1892. The railroad still operates passenger and freight service through it, The first photo is dated 1895.

Construction of the 1.1 mile Zion Mt. Carmel Tunnel began in the late 1920s and was completed in 1930. It was built to provide direct access from Zion to Bryce and Grand Canyon National Parks. The first photo is undated.