Central Pacific Railroad Stereo Views near Donner Summit
Stereograph cards were a popular form of entertainment before the arrival of the cinema. Much of the documentation of the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad was created by photographers using their two-lens stereo cameras. All of Alfred A. Hart's published images made for the Central Pacific Railroad were marketed as stereocards. Each of the stereocards on this page will demonstrate a stereo 3D effect when viewed in a stereoscope.
If you have neither the stereocard nor a stereoscope viewer, you can still experience the images in 3D using the solutions below.
Click on each of the cards below to see an animated 3D effect and a 3D anaglyph. The anaglyphs require red/cyan glasses. Anaglyphic images will provide a 3D visual experience most similar to that intended by the photographer. If you do not have the red/cyan glasses, inexpensive paper ones may be ordered here.
The dual-image stereocards are presented on these pages unaltered from our scans of the original cards in private collections. The anaglyphs and the animated images have been modified to optimize the stereoscopic effect. The images and text are excerpted from the book Waiting for the Cars, by Howard Goldbaum and Wendell Huffman.
