MUMPER & CO. CABINET CARD – LARGE FIELD WEST OF DEEP CUT, FAIRFIELD, PA (PORTION OF UNFINISHED ‘TAPEWORM’ RAILROAD)

$195.00

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Item Code: 2024-5066

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Scenic outdoor view showing a large field in the foreground and hills in the background; the unfinished railroad bed snakes its way along the right side of the image.  On the reverse in period writing is, “22 – Showing large Field west of deep cut”.  Also present on the reverse is a photographer’s imprint in an oval:  “MUMPER & CO. / PHOTO / ARTISTS / Baltimore St. / Gettysburg, Pa.”  Overall excellent clean condition; contrast is somewhat light.

The Tapeworm Railroad (Gettysburg Rail Road) was a railway line planned by Congressman Thaddeus Stevens and nicknamed by opponents ridiculing a lengthy serpentine section around the Green Ridge of South Mountain after an orator compared the path to a tapeworm depiction on a product's packaging. Switchbacks were planned on the west slope at Hughs Forge along the E Br Antietam Creek ,("Cold Spring Cr" in 1839) and on the east slope at Stevens' 1822 Maria Furnace along Toms Creek (Monocacy River), with three east slope tunnels through spurs of Jacks Mountain.

In 1836, Herman Haupt had surveyed the "road from Gettysburg across South Mountain to the Potomac" and in 1838, the rail "bed" was "graded for a number of miles, never got further than Monterey", and included the following (west-to-east):

single-arch roadway bridge over Toms Creek west of Iron Springs, Pennsylvania

multi-arch bridge

viaduct at Virginia Mills

deep cut near Marsh Creek

elevated railbed on banks of Willoughby Run

McPherson Ridge railway cut, site of the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg military engagements on McPherson Ridge

Seminary Ridge railway cut

After Thaddeus Stevens lost his position on the Canal Commission, the commonwealth ended the railroad's financing and work was suspended in 1838, and an 1839 survey was ordered of the planned line.  The Tapeworm Railroad right-of-way was later used by the Susquehanna, Gettysburg and Potomac Railway and its successor, the Baltimore and Harrisburg Railway to build a line from Gettysburg west to Highfield, Maryland. [ld][ph:L]

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