Foochow (Fuzhou), Fukien province, China: Wanshou Bridge. Photograph by John Thomson, ca. 1871.

Looking down on a long stone bridge with market-stalls on it, one with a white awning, across a still river. A town in the background. The same bridge as shown in Thomson's negative number 334 and 336, i.e. the Wanshou bridge in Foochow

This photograph shows the immense size of the bridge. It has nearly forty solid stone buttresses. Some of the stones are almost 3 feet square, and 45 feet long, extending from buttress to buttress, acting as sleepers. Above these stone sleepers lies a granite platform. There are strong stone railings on the sides of the bridge, which are fastened to stone pillars. Originally there were shops on this bridge, but they were later removed to make way for passengers and transport. The bridge was subsequently replaced by the present Jiefang Bridge

1871

1 photograph : glass photonegative, wet collodion : stereograph

Bears no Thomson number, now numbered [xiii]

This is one of a collection of original glass negatives made by John Thomson. The negatives, made between 1868 and 1872, were purchased from Thomson by Sir Henry Wellcome in 1921

China through the lens of John Thomson, 1868-1872, Beijing: Beijing World Art Museum, 2009, p. 96 (reproduced)

Wellcome Collection 19980i