3-011-337 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Valparaiso and Santiago Railway: the Maquis Viaduct, 1864. Engraving from a drawing by Mr. Boulet, of '...one of the highest railways in the world... Its length is somewhat over 114 miles, and, as its course lies through a portion of the Chain of the Andes, it offers, in some respects, features seldom encountered upon works of this nature...at one point occurs the Maquis Viaduct, an iron structure 126 ft. in altitude, 600 ft. in length, and which presents the rare features of being curved to a radius of 600 ft., and, on account of the incline over it, of being about 14 ft. higher at one end than the other. The superstructure of this viaduct is tubular, the principal span being 150 ft., and it is the first example of a tubular bridge erected in South America. A considerable portion of the funds employed upon the construction of this railway have been furnished from England through the house of Baring Brothers; and its total expense has exceeded two millions sterling...' From "Illustrated London News", 1864.