Metlac bridge F. C. M. Mexico. Circa 1870.

Loose vintage albumen print, with the indication written on the glass negative -bottom left-, "269 - Metlac Bridge F C M". Measurement: 11 x 18.5 cm / 4.33 x 7.28 in. Work in excellent condition.

Railway development as an essential engine of progress and modernization in Mexico was promoted by the highest government authorities of that great northern country. The railway lines advanced through its geography, saving complex geographical features; This is shown by the spectacular Metlac Bridge of the National Railways of Mexico, planned and promoted by the engineer William Lloyd (1822-1905) from 1864 until its inauguration in 1873. The line linked the Aztec capital with the port of Veracruz through 423 kilometers saving heights of more than 2,400 meters for which the arduous construction of 16 tunnels and 39 bridges was required in almost impossible geographical conditions. The work required the ingenuity and technical audacity of the best designers and engineers of its time

It was around the 1870s Abel Briquet (1833-1926) when, one of the most talented French photographers working in Mexico, set out to document all the magnificence of this highly engineered work, obtaining this shocking record where man subdues the untamed nature.

The long curved bridge, with its 137 meters of extension, allowed Briquet's poetic camera to obtain this shocking record of his workers advancing with a dray-rail fox-carrying a couple of young guests, while other workers almost suspended over it. the void observe the unusual photographic scene. Below is the deep ravine where the impetuous Metlac River runs and, surrounding all this beautiful landscape, rise the mountain ridges with their tropical forests. A rare nineteenth-century work.

By Abel Alexander

President of the Ibero-American Society for the History of Photography