Bridge Across the Missouri River — Omaha

From an elevated vantage on the Nebraska bluffs, photographer E.L. Eaton pictures the original Union Pacific Railroad bridge to span the Missouri River. His composition includes the frame cottages of East Omaha and the smokestacks of early industry, all subordinated to the long iron truss connecting the city to the eastern rail network. The exposure survives as an uncommonly legible record of the 1872 structure, the engineering feat that transformed a frontier terminus into a true through-station of the American rail system.