2-982-579 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Smyrna and Aïdin Railway, 1858. 'This railway being the first and only undertaking of the kind in the Ottoman Empire derives from that circumstance alone an interest of more than ordinary significance...it will open a rich district to the south-east of Smyrna, and will connect the town of Aïdin with that port by a line of upwards of seventy miles in length. Some idea may be formed of the enormous amount of traffic from the fact that during the busy months more than 5000 camels arrive daily at Smyrna, laden with the various products of the district through which this line passes, and which will, of course, be imported by the new mode of conveyance...The line is just completed to the village of Sedikoi, ten miles from Smyrna. The Illustration is taken from the old Boudjah road. In the valley below is seen the River Meles...The hill on the left is the foot of Mount Pegus; in the middle distance is the Caravan-bridge Hotel, and where will be the first station of the railway; beyond is seen the inner bay of Smyrna, with its blue waters, on which the spirit of innovation constantly glides in the form of a twopenny steamer, of unmistakable Thames build, for the convenience of the opposite village of Bornabat. The distant mountain is Sypilus...'. From "Illustrated London News", 1858.