Early Omaha: Gateway to the West
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Looking southeast on the Council Bluffs side, the Chicago Rock Island & Pacific sign is clearly visible on the far left of the image. The ticket offices for the Eastern railroads are also visible.

This is a winter scene as the ice bridge is in place and looking between the track and three of the ferries that are tied up behind the train there appears to be snow on the ground. Once the river froze for the winter the ferries could not transport people and goods across the river so a bridge was constructed across the river on the ice that would take the place of the ferries. The newspapers note its construction some years as being in the same place as the year before. Once the railroads made it to Council Bluffs the “ice bridge” took on a different construction, since it now had to transport heavy railroad equipment. Piling was driven into the river bottom to support the bridge. When the ice broke in the spring and the river began to rise the bridge was, as much as possible, disassembled, and the ferry again resumed operation. Note the brakemen on the train, who, at that time, had to walk on the tops of the cars setting the brakes on each car by hand. The length of the train is likely the maximum number of cars the locomotive could handle.