Stunning black and white photographs by Mark Ruwedel allow us to literally follow the building of America through the railroads. In a show to start February 5 at Yossi Milo Gallery in New York City, Ruwedel's stark pictures show us where the railway lines used to exist and how difficult it must have been to build the American railway system. He captures every valley, hill, rock formation and mountain which proved no obstacle to the impressive work of imported workers employed to create the great travel network.

The Yossi Milo Gallery describes his show thusly:

"Mark Ruwedel photographs the sites of 19th and 20th century railway lines in the American and Canadian West using a large-format view camera. The collapsed tunnels, deteriorating trestles, and eroding cuts and grades of over 130 abandoned railroad lines are documented in photographs taken between 1994 and 2006. The detailed gelatin silver prints record the remains and ruins of railway networks, as well as evidence of industries that moved in after the decline of the railroad, such as uranium-claim markers, mine entrances, and bomb craters at abandoned army fields."

In a wise decision, Mark Ruwedel avoids color so that the isolation and vastness of building an empire is captured perfectly. Your imagination can easily take you from the beginning when workers cleared the land and laid the rails through to the first locomotives traveling the passages. It is a remarkable display of Americana that should drive you to this beautifully done exhibit.

Ruwedel is one of America's up and coming photographers. His work has been shown at the Getty Museum, the Library of Congress, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and in numerous foreign venues. The show is at the Yossi Milo Gallery in New York until March 5.

This is well worth your time if you live in the New York area or visiting in the next month.