Name/Title
StereographEntry/Object ID
2023.055.3.0117Description
A black and white stereograph. Image is of a wrecked set of traintracks in a river, the front end of a steam train is visible in the foreground, there is a hill with more traintracks in the background. Above the image "W20 (Star)" is printed, below the image " V18825 Tangled ruins of Marne Bridge Blown up by Germans and Red Cross Train Wreck" is printed, to the left of the image "Keystone View Company Copyrighted, Underwood & Underwood, Inc. Manufacturers MADE IN U.S.A. Publishers" is printed, to the right of the image "Meadville, Pa., New York, N. Y., Chicago, Ill., London, England." is printed. The following is printed on the reverse:
V18825
TANGLED RUINS OF MARNE BRIDGE BLOWN UP BY GERMANS AND RED CROSS TRAIN WRECK
After the Germans were defeated on Marne in 1914 they did everything consistent with a hasty retreat, to hamper the pursuing French. In this case they have wrecked a railway bridge to cut what would otherwise be the route of the supplyu trains for the French army. The fact that a Red Cross train was on the bridge was not considred of any consequence.
The "Nord" one sees on the engine is the French word for "North," and allueds to the railway system to which it belongs, the Chemin de Fer du Nord. There are only six great wialway companies in France and the systems of the Northern and Eastern companies are the ones whose lines cover the country which was devastated in the war.
But without them neither the Allies nor the Germans could have carried on the war or supplied their vast armies as they did. After gaining possesion of large portions of these systems, the Germans reparied them and kept them in a high state of efficiency. It was a combination of some of the double track main lines of the Chamin de Fer du Nored and the Chemin de Fer du l'est running from Metz to Lille which connected the whole central and northern sections of the German battle front and enabled them to shift their troops rapidly from one place to another as they might be needed. When the first American Army attacked in the Meuse-Argonne in 1918 , it struck at the poriton of this line laying between Metz and Sedan, and before the armistice came it had foreced its way to Sedan and broken the line there, literally splitting the Gramn armies in two.
Copyright by The Keystone View CompanyCollection
Photograph Collection