Bridge and tunnel over Jalon, Madrid to Zaragoza c. 1860 - 1865

This photograph, taken by Juan Laurent, captures a bridge and tunnel along the Madrid to Zaragoza line. It’s a collodion print, a process that involved coating a glass plate with chemicals, exposing it in the camera while still wet, and then developing it immediately. The image presents the built environment as an assertion of will against the resistance of nature. Consider all that labor: the extraction of iron ore, the forging of the metalwork in the bridge, and the carving of the tunnel right through the mountain. The scene is a potent symbol of modernization, yet also one that is deeply rooted in the earth. Photographs like this were not only documentary but also promotional. They celebrated engineering achievement, and lured investors. The image operates simultaneously as a work of art, a technical document, and a piece of industrial propaganda. This complex layering of functions is precisely what makes it so compelling today.